


When There's No Other Outlet

by Leigheaux_kun



Category: Original Work
Genre: A/B/O, Date Rape Drug/Roofies, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fivesome - F/M/M/M/M, Foursome - F/M/M/M, Generally Mentions Of Rape Sprinkled In, God I Didn't Realize How Often This Story Comes Back To Rape, Harems, I'm Sorry, M/M, Multi, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Past Rape/Non-con, Rape Aftermath, Sexism, Social Justice, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, alpha/beta/omega
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 11:19:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17099624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leigheaux_kun/pseuds/Leigheaux_kun
Summary: The United States in the middle of the 21st century is on the verge of civil war; it just doesn’t know it yet.A red wave has swept through the country, and under the peaceful facade of daily life lies the shimmering resentment of the Omega class. About the last person likely to find himself in the middle of this mounting storm is Carlyn Tracy. Carlyn would like to think he's an alpha to the bone, with three omega mates to his name, but everything changes when he meets Johann Williamson. Johann is an unbonded omega who’s a part of radical omega rights group and who challenges Carlyn at every turn. In the midst of the pressure cooker of degrading civil life, Carlyn’s loyalty and beliefs are tested, as his wild attraction to Johann continues to distract him. Carlyn’s world of power and privilege collides with Johann’s world of captivity and submission with explosive results.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TopazledHannah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TopazledHannah/gifts).



 

Carlyn found his sister, Lyric, where she could normally be found on her day off - in her pool-house, lounging by the heated pool with her harem, a mimosa, and a book. In other words, living her best life. Lyric worked hard as a lawyer and when she had time off, she treasured time alone with her harem. In that way, she was a typical alpha. She was a typical alpha in many ways, which she never failed to lovingly point out to her baby brother, Carlyn.

Inside the pool-house Lyric and the 6 omegas of her harem were reclined on the floor in loose pile atop cushions and soft blankets. As many alphas and their harems were wont to do when lounging at home none of them were dressed. While Lyric read, the omegas amused themselves with books or music or their phones. One omega had her head resting on Lyric’s lap. Carlyn had the immediate and specific idea that she looked like a Renaissance interpretation of the Venus of Willendorf. Her clay brown skin, dramatic repose, and heavily pregnant belly made the image impossible for Carlyn not to see. He often had such whimsical thoughts.

Carlyn smiled at the group as he approached.

“Hey, Lyr,” Carlyn said.

Lyric lowered her book at last - as if she hadn’t smelled and heard him approach long before - and looked at him. “So, what’s going on?” she asked lightly.

“I was in the area and I miss you.”

Laughing, Lyric put down her book and gently pushed the pregnant omega off her lap. “You are more emotional than an omega,” she chuckled. “I love you for it, but it’s going to get you in trouble one day.” She strolled to meet him, stretching like a cat as she did.

Lyric was an absolutely massive alpha, tall and broad, built like a stone fortress, with black skin and wild dark coils of hair that had never been touched by scissors or relaxer. She stood bigger than Carlyn and even their mother - which impressed Carlyn to no ends, given how their mother treated people. She was fifteen years older than Carlyn and as much a mother to him as their mother had ever been.

When Lyric and Carlyn met a few feet from her lounge she put her hands on his shoulders, looked him over. Surely what she saw was similar to herself, an alpha, shorter than her by a head, and less broad to match. But he had the same black skin, the same rock-solid frame, the same rich brown eyes. Where her hair was a crown of coils, his was a graceful mane of locks.

Lyric yanked Carlyn to her and squeezed him in a crushing hug. Alphas normally never tolerated being touched by other alphas, but Carlyn loved being hugged by his sister. To him it was as if she was saying she would fold him up and slip him under her heart if she could, and he allowed her to crush him for as long as she liked. They rocked back and forth a few times until she let go and put her hands back on Carlyn’s shoulders.

“Feel better?” Lyric asked with a smile.

“Yes,” Carlyn answered. Then he peeked around Lyric towards her harem. The omegas were gazing at them from the lounge, mostly content, except for Gloria, the pregnant one. Gloria was frowning heavily, her long dark hair falling over her face and obscuring her scowl. Carlyn smiled and internally forgave her, as he was aware that pregnant omegas were some of the meanest people on the planet. Or at least that’s what alphas told themselves.

“Hello, Gloria,” Carlyn said. “You look beautiful today. How do you feel?”

“Heavy,” Gloria replied.

“She’s due any day now,” Lyric said. “You’re lucky you’re an alpha man. Pregnancy is a pain.”

“It must be,” Carlyn said. “Still …”

“Still, if you could do it you would, you omega!” Lyric laughed. “I swear, you’re impossible.”

Carlyn laughed with practiced but sincere sheepishness. “I guess. I can’t help it though.”

“I know. I love you for it, you weird little freak.” Lyric put an arm around Carlyn’s shoulders. “Would you like to sit down? Have a mimosa?”

“Sure. I-”

Cutting Carlyn off, a high-pitched ringing sounded throughout the room. Carlyn frowned and fished his phone out of his pocket.

“Yes?” Carlyn answered.

_“Boss! We’ve got a situation down here.”_

“What sort of situation?”

_“Some omegas broke into the garage and stole some of our trucks.”_

“What? Who are they?”

_“Don’t know. We only caught one of them. They were armed and really fucking good. He’s not talking. We’ll get it out of him though.”_

“No. Don’t do anything. Leave him in my office and I’ll take care of it.”

_“But-”_

“I said leave it! I’ll be there soon.” Carlyn ended the call and slipped his phone back in his pocket.

“A trained, armed omega group stole some trucks?” Lyric muttered. “That … doesn’t even sound right.”

“Who were they?” one of Lyric’s omegas asked.

“I don’t yet,” Carlyn grumbled. “I’ll handle it.”

“Do you need me?” Lyric asked, her big dark eyes full of cool control.

“No,” Lyric said. He kissed her cheek, an unusual thing for one alpha to do to another. “I’ll call you when I can.” With that he turned and headed for the door of the pool house.

 

*******

The house that served as the base of operations for the Fangs was slightly out of town to avoid prying eyes and to accommodate the space it needed for the house itself and its grounds. The drive from Lyric’s wasn’t that long but the trip was just long enough to give Carlyn a slight headache thinking about the fact that they had been robbed and all the things that could go wrong from here on out. He wasn’t sure what sort of idiots would have the dick size necessary to rob the Fangs main compound, but it wasn’t making him happy to have to deal with it.

Carlyn parked in the front of the main house of the compound when he arrived and stepped out of his truck. All around him were people rushing back and forth. He gestured to the first person to notice him - a beta he barely knew by name - and waited for them to approach.

“What did they get?” Carlyn asked.

The beta frowned. “Some trucks, I guess. Adison would know better than me. But, uh, they blew a fucking hole in our wall. We barely got the police to get off our backs.”

“Fuck,” Carlyn hissed and waved the beta away.

The beta left and Carlyn walked into the main house up towards his office. He passed some other Fangs, all telling him what they thought he should do with the omega they’d caught, some laughing, almost impressed, others not so much. Carlyn ignored them all and got to his office without stopping to talk. Becka and Raji, two of his underbosses, were waiting for him outside the ajar door. Raji was frowning, but Becka was grinning ear to ear.

“I love that meg,” Becka giggled as Carlyn approached. She was holding a coiled-up whip, with a pink handle to match her punk Lolita outfit and pink hair. Her excitement was showing by the way she was twisting it in both hands. “He can certainly take a hit!”

Carlyn frowned and looked from Becka to Raji.

“Hmph,” Raji grumbled, shifting in place, like he was shaking off the cold. “He can take a hit. And dish it out too. Not really your type, Becks.” The older and gruffer alpha tended to act like a mature uncle, giving unwanted by very sage advice.

“I’ll adjust if he’ll let him tie him down a bit!” Becka said, wiggling back and forth in excitement.

“He came in with others,” Raji explained, running a hand through his greying hair. “We didn’t catch him originally. We caught someone slower. He came back, knocked two alpha and a beta off his friend, and got her out. Then took out a load of guys and almost got away himself before we got him tied to something.”

“Shit,” Carlyn muttered.

“He’s wonderful,” Becka purred.

“Keep your pants on, Becka,” Carlyn snarled. “He stole from us.”

“Give him to me,” Becka snapped, grinning with all fangs. “I’ll get him to talk.”

“I doubt that,” Raji sighed.

“So do I,” Carlyn said.

“Hey!” someone shouted from down the hall.

Carlyn turned to find another alpha, Jackson, bandaged up and stalking down the hall with a scowl on his face.

“What do you want?” Carlyn asked.

“I want a piece of that little fucker in there!” Jackson said.

“Get in line,” Becka scoffed.

“Fuck you, you kink-brained little shit!” Jackson snapped

“What did you just say?!” Becka snarled.

Carlyn got between Becka and Jackson, facing him. He could feel Raji’s back against his, tipping him off that Raji was keeping Becka back. This situation was exactly why Carlyn hated dealing with his own sex. With alphas everything was a pissing contest.

“Why do you want to see the omega?” Carlyn asked.

“Fuck,” Jackson said. “Look what that little fucker did to me! I want to teach him a lesson!”

“Well, that’s all very … understandable,” Carlyn said. “But we need information. So, I’m going to have to say no. Go home.”

“Fuck you.”

“Go home,” Carlyn said more firmly. “Or I’ll rip your fucking dick off and shove it down your throat.” It wasn’t his style, but it was only language that an alpha understood.

Jackson paused, probably thinking about whether he could take Carlyn in a fight, and whether he was ready to deal with the fallout of attacking him even if he could. Then he huffed.

“Fuck the little meg for me, huh?” he said, then turned and walked away.

“I hate that guy,” Becka whispered.

“We’ll deal with all that later,” Carlyn sighed. “I’m going to go talk to our guest.”

 

*******

Carlyn closed and locked the door behind him, then walked a cautious, wide circle around the restricted omega and stood behind his desk to get a good look at him. The omega was somehow startling. He was small, but bulky for his type, packed with muscle under his sun-tanned skin. He was injured, which twisted Carlyn’s stomach, as he hated to see any omega in distress, but seemed more angry than hurt.

He had fresh bruises blooming on his arms and face, and blood trickling from his mouth. He wore a military-style uniform, a short sleeve t-shirt, tucked into cargo pants with a tactical belt, with heavy tactical boots. His hands - tied down to the arms of the chair, had fingerless combat gloves on them. This omega wasn’t joking and wasn’t to be underestimated.

“Are you hurt?” Carlyn asked.

“What do you care, alpha?” the omega sneered.

“I care,” Carlyn countered. “You and your group stole from us. And fully plan on getting our shit back. But you’re an omega. I care.”

“How noble of you,” he said.

“You want to tell me who you are?”

“We are the Lucretian Legion. We are the spear and the shield of omegas. We are the roar shattering the silence. We are justice.”

Carlyn paused while he thought. The Lucretian Legion. He didn’t think he’d ever heard of them, but they had a name, a motto, combat gear, a strike group power enough to steal from the Fangs. How had this happened?

“The Lucretian Legion,” Carlyn said carefully. “You’re some kind of para-military omega group?”

The omega said nothing. He only glared from behind his dirty blonde bangs.

“Are you terrorists?”

“The Fangs are a gang,” the omega easily. A smile almost curved his lips. “Illegal guns, for one thing. Drugs. Money laundering.” He tutted and shook his head a little.

“And what about you? Armed robbery?”

“So, call the police.”

Frowning, Carlyn saw they were stuck. One group working outside the law against another doing the same. If it was an alpha in front of him, he’d just beat the information out of him. But he couldn’t bring himself to do that to an omega. Even one like the omega in front of him. It was his first and only instinct as an alpha to give when it came to omega.

And it occurred to him, that might work.

“What’s your name?” Carlyn asked. “I’m Carlyn Tracy.”

“Tracy? Like Karen Tracy?”

“She fathered me.”

“Fathered?” The omega quirked an eyebrow and gazed at Carlyn for a moment.

This was a gamble on Carlyn’s part. Honesty for honesty. It was more omega than alpha, which Lyric always said would get him in trouble, but Carlyn was willing to bet it would pay off.

“You’re a bastard,” the omega said slowly.

“And how. My mothers weren’t even bonded.”

“Poor you,” the omega drawled.

“How about you? I supposed an omega like you doesn’t have a mate.”

The omega snarled and bared his teeth. “Try anything and I’ll bite your dick off.”

“I would never. You’d never allow it.”

“As if you’d care if I’d allow it. I heard what your friends were saying. The alpha with the fucking whip. The dick I got ahold of earlier.”

Carlyn frowned and watched the omega for a moment. “Becka wouldn’t hit anyone who didn’t agree to be hit. And Jackson is an asshole we keep on a leash.”

“Sure you do. Who else is expecting you to fuck me?”

“Rape of an omega is a hate crime, you know,” Carlyn pointed out, thinking he was making a point.

“Rarely prosecuted. Alpha can’t help themselves around omega, as I understand it. Besides, if an omega is alone with an alpha, what do they expect to happen? What do people think they expected to happen? It’s the alpha’s word against the omegas. Who gets believed? Who would you believe?”

For a moment, Carlyn and the omega just looked at each other. Carlyn had never known an alpha to really harm any omega, but this omega wasn’t snarling over made up stories.

“What’s your name?” Carlyn asked.

The omega stared at him for a moment before answering. “Johann Williamson.”

“Johann,” Carlyn repeated. “Aren’t you tired of fighting, Johann? Isn’t it hard work?”

“I’m not afraid of hard work.”

“I’m sure you’re not. But you have to know when to use force, and when you can negotiate your way out of a situation.”

Johann stared at him but didn’t speak. Carlyn was sure if he considering or ignoring him but decided to go head in either case.

“If you’re stealing, it means I have what you need on hand. Why don’t I give it you? No tricks. Just don’t come in here guns blazing again. It makes us look bad when people steal from us.”

“Just beat and rape me and get it over with, alpha.”

“I’m not going to do that, Johann. I’m offering you a deal. Supplies. Protection.”

“If any of us wanted the protection of alpha,” Johann snarled, “we would be in harem, not in the Legion.”

Carlyn gave a half smile and tried his best to pleasing. “I don’t mean it like that. I mean protection in numbers. Allies.”

“And what do you get out of this?”

“I’m not sure yet. I smell something on you. It’s instinct.”

“An alpha’s instinct gets an omega fucked,” Johann spat.

“Not this time. And to prove it, I’m willing to make a show of good faith. I’m going to fake a bonding with you.”

“Excuse me?!” Finally, some real emotion broke through Johann’s expression. He looked scandalized, appalled. He strained so hard against the ropes tying him to the chair that Carlyn began to worry he’d hurt himself.

“I’m going to fake bonding with you. Sleep in my bed a few nights. No one will know the difference. I’ve done it before. Then you can waltz in here and take whatever you want as long as I okay it. I’m sure I’ll get something out of this. I can feel it.”

“No,” Johann growled. He looked more furious now than he had when Carlyn walked into the room.

Undeterred, Carlyn strolled across the room and pulled open painting to reveal a secret wall safe. He punched in the code, opened the door, and from inside withdrew a load of cash that he brought back to his desk and toss casually down.

“Pocket money,” he said. “The Legion can have it. I’ll call it an investment.”

“Shove it,” Johann whispered, but Carlyn noted he was eyeing the cash.

“Maybe you need time to think,” Carlyn said. “Or maybe you need permission from a leader or something.”

Snatching the money up from the desk, Carlyn put the stash back in the safe and shut the painting back over it. Then he walked to door of the office, cutting the most direct route this time. Raji and Becka were still outside the door.

“Get something to knock out our guest,” Carlyn said. “I need him calm for a car ride.”


	2. Chapter 2

It took all three of them to gag Johann, so he wouldn’t bite, hold him still, and inject him with a sedative to render him harmless enough to be untied from the chair. Then it was just a matter of retying him up without the chair and carrying him to Carlyn’s truck. Raji offered to go with Carlyn, in case Johann woke up and proved to be more than he could handle, but Carlyn assured him that wouldn’t be necessary.

“He’ll be out of my hair sooner than you think,” Carlyn said with a smile. With that he drove away, Johann sleeping deeply, tied up in the back seat of the truck.

The drive to Carlyn’s house wasn’t long. He pulled into his garage and shut the door behind the truck before getting out and opening the rear door where Johann was still asleep. Thankful he still had some time to prepare, Carlyn picked Johann up, settled him over his shoulder, and went into the house.

He didn’t get upstairs before he ran into someone.

Loren, a member of his harem, was walking out of the kitchen, a glass of whiskey on the rocks in her hand. She was a pretty omega, older than Carlyn, who people said Carlyn would get tired of sooner or later. He never had. She ran his household on a day-to-day basis and had no doubt poured the whiskey when she heard the truck come into the garage.

“What is going on?” Loren asked, a crease of worry wrinkling her forehead.

Carlyn smiled in what he’d always assumed was a soothing way. “Business,” he said. “Come on. I think I’ll need that drink.”

“Is he tied up?”

Carlyn explained the mess at the Fang compound as he walked them upstairs to his bedroom and outlined his plan to invest in the Lucretian Legion. As he put Johann down on the bed, Loren put her hand on his arm.

“I don’t think you should be messing with the Legion.”

“What? Why? What do you know about them?” Carlyn took his drink and began to sip it as Loren talked in a whisper.

“Not much,” she said. “I know they’re radical. Really radical. They’re not above murder.”

“Neither am I,” Carlyn reminded her gently.

“They’ve killed alphas when they’ve seen fit.”

“I’ve killed alphas when I’ve seen fit. We should get along.”

“Carlyn!” Loren whispered harshly. She glanced at Johann, asleep on the bed, then took Carlyn’s arm and lead him away from the bed and towards the bedroom door. “I’m serious. They’re dangerous.”

“If they’re so dangerous, why haven’t you ever said anything about them?”

Loren looked at Carlyn as if he’d said something extremely stupid.

“They’re only dangerous to alphas. You’ve never crossed an omega in your life. There would have been no reason for the Lucretian Legion to even know you exist. But now they do.”

“So, they’re a vigilante group? Their motto says they’re justice.”

Loren twisted her mouth for a moment, then shook her head. “In a way, they are. But I don’t trust them still. I don’t like people willing to take the law into their own hands. What if they decided they don’t like you?”

“I’ll make them like me. I’ve never crossed an omega in my life. I’m not about to start now.” Carlyn looked back at the bed. “Could you make something for him? Something comforting.”

“All the comfort food in the world isn’t going to make those ropes better, but I’ll try. Don’t let him smother you in your sleep.” Loren threw another glance at Johann, then walked away.

 

*******

Johann woke up slowly, and Carlyn made sure to be out of his reach as he came to. He didn’t trust him not to lunge at him even with the ropes and grogginess holding him back.

“Welcome back,” Carlyn said. “Sorry about that. I doubted you would come along peacefully.”

“Where the fuck am I?” Johann rasped.

“My bedroom,” Carlyn said thinking honestly would be the best policy.

Johann chortled darkly in response. It gave Carlyn the creeps. “So, you’re going to rape me after all,” Johann sighed.

“No. Stop saying that.”

“So what am I doing in your fucking bedroom?!” Johann shouted.

“Calm down,” another voice said. “There’s point in getting overwrought.”

It was Davis, another member of Carlyn’s harem. He small and sweet, around Carlyn’s age and practical to a fault.

“You’re here,” Davis said. “Carlyn wants to help you. It’s good deal. You should take it.”

“What would a kept house pet like you know about anything?” Johann snapped.

“I don’t have to prove myself to you,” Davis muttered. “Be an idiot, see if I care. But know that you are being stupid.”

“Davis, stop,” Carlyn muttered. A nervous smile was on his face, because he hadn’t expected Davis to immediately jump into an argument with Johann. “This is our guest.”

“And my harem-brother, for all intents and purposes,” Davis added.

“Well … yes.” Carlyn looked at Johann. “Are you hungry? My other omega, Loren, made dinner and she’s a great cook.”

“How many omegas do you keep?”

“Three,” Carlyn answered. “Loren, Davis here, and Josh. And you, but just for pretend.”

“I am not going to pretend to be in your harem,” Johann snarled.

“You don’t have much of a choice,” Davis pointed out. “You’re tied up. In a few days no one will be able to tell the difference.”

Johann looked sick.

“It won’t be all bad,” Carlyn assured Johann. “This is really just so I can’t find you again. I want to make my offer to your leaders to invest in them.”

“Fuck you.”

“Mhm,” Carlyn replied, choosing to ignore Johann’s bad mood. “Are you hungry?” he repeated again.

“No!” Johann snapped.

“Fine,” Carlyn shrugged and approached the bed. “But I can’t leave you alone in here.”

“I’ll bring you something,” Davis said as he left the room.

“Thanks,” Carlyn called and said and sat down on the bed across from Johann.

 

*******

Loren came in and spoon-fed Johann some beef stew and Italian bread. Then she pulled him down into bed and blew Carlyn a kiss. Carlyn blew a kiss back at her and watched her leave, before turning off the light and drawing the blanket the up over himself and Johann.

“You’re tense,” Carlyn said softly, ignoring the less conventional aspects of the situation. “Try to relax and get some sleep.”

“Sleep?” Johann hissed in the dark. “You want me to sleep? Fuck you.”

“Relax,” Carlyn said again as he settled as close to Johann as he could, his front to Johann’s side, one arm over Johann’s body, melting into him. “Just go to sleep.”

“I fucking hate you,” Johann whispered, then said no more.

A few hours passed in still silence. Carlyn didn’t sleep. Johann was tense in his arms. He smelled angry and it was sickening and distracting. With a sigh, Carlyn realized he would have to do something.

“Johann? You asleep?”

The reply came immediately. “How could I fucking be asleep with you pressing down on me?”

“I’m not pressing down on you,” Carlyn said. Then he thought about it. “Am I? I mean, you’re not used to sleeping with an alpha, are you? Am I heavy?” Carlyn moved a bit and pulled on Johann so that Johann’s weight was more on him rather than his weight being on Johann. So adjusted, he was certain that should help. “Is that better?”

“What would be better would be you letting me go.”

“I can’t do that,” Carlyn said. “Not yet.”

“Alpha. You’re all so fucking horrible.”

Carlyn chuckled and leaned down to press his nose into Johann’s hair. The man still smelled like a bitter anger and sour emotions, but the action was habit for Carlyn. “You’d think you’d like alphas,” he said lightly. “Omegas and alphas are most similar. They’re more similar to each other than either of them are to betas, in any case.”

“Excuse me?!” Johann hissed. He squirmed in place, as if the very implication that any omega had anything in common with alphas made him physically sick.

“Well, it’s true. Think about it. Three sexes, alphas, beta, and omegas. Two genders, men and women. Alphas and omegas are the two sexes that have a gender that are technically intersexed. Alpha females can have children and father children, even though alpha men can’t. But omega men can have children and father children, even though omega females can’t. Betas. Well, betas males can only father children, and beta females can only mother them. As a sex, omegas and alphas, especially omega males and alpha females, are way more alike than betas of either gender. I mean, it’s anecdotal, but the person you remind me of most is my sister, Lyric and she has the biggest dick of anyone I’ve ever known. She has six omegas in her harem!”

Johann snorted and tried to roll away, but Carlyn held him.

“I’m just saying,” Carlyn muttered.

“Fuck you!” Johann hissed. “It’s not about biology! It’s about power!”

“Power?” Carlyn repeated. “What about power?”

“God, you don’t know anything about the real world, do you?” Johann sighed. “Think about the world, you fucking idiot. You have alphas, fuckers that you are. You keep harems of omegas like sex slaves.”

“They aren’t sex slaves!” Carlyn protested. “Their lovers. And an alpha can keep omegas safe and comfortable and loved.”

“Safe? Comfortable? Have you lost your mind? This is not the jungle! We live in cities, with cell phones and cars, you fucking idiot. Why does an omega need an alpha to protect them? Don’t answer that! Just listen for once in your pathetic, sheltered life. On the top you have alphas, who keep a harem of omegas. Then you have beta, decent fucking people who get married to one person and have a fucking life with them. That’s the only way for an omega to get any power. Then at the bottom, you have omegas, kept in harems or picked by betas if they’re lucky. Omegas are destined to live their lives depending on someone higher up then them for everything.”

“But you’re the only ones who have children with all three sexes,” Carlyn pointed out. “You stay in harems with alphas where you also sleep with other omegas and you marry betas. You’re desired.”

“Desired?” said seemingly between clenched teeth. “I fucking hate you. Don’t talk to me. I’m going to sleep.”

“I thought you couldn’t sleep,” Carlyn teased.

“Anything is better than talking to you,” Johann growled, then curled himself up in the ropes and went still.

Carlyn waited for a while, counted Johann’s breaths, and heard him go to sleep. With Johann asleep, Carlyn felt a little better and closed his eyes. After a few minutes, he drifted off as well.


	3. Chapter 3

 

The next day, Carlyn spent at home, upstairs in his office, away from his bedroom so that Johann could have some time to himself. Carlyn doubted that he would hurt an omega who sincerely didn’t want to hurt him, so he left his care to Loren for the day.

While Loren tended to Johann, Carlyn stayed in communication with Adison, the bookkeep of the Fangs, and Carlyn’s third underboss, who was cataloging the damage caused by the Lucretian Legion attack.

 _“We mostly got things cleaned up,”_ Adison said over the phone. _“They’re professional, these omegas. It was a clean hit.”_

“Careful, referring to them as simply omegas. I’m not sure they like it.”

There was a sigh on the other end of the phone. _“Are you sure about this? Investing in the Legion? This seems risky.”_

“Instinct, Adi. I’m sure. I can feel it. There’s something there. I just have to root it out.”

Adison huffed. She was a no-nonsense beta and relied on her instinct less than an alpha would. _“If you say so. I’ll follow you.”_

“I know you will. When I’ve got something concrete, I’ll call you. I’ll be in tomorrow. I don’t want to smother him.”

_“Whatever you want. I’ll see you tomorrow.”_

It took the rest of the day to approve everything for the repairs on the garage. Carlyn ate downstairs with Loren and Davis, while Josh, his third omega, sat upstairs with Johann.

“Are you sure about this about this?” Loren muttered over her town-famous chicken tikka masala. “I like the man. I do. But he’s very radical and just as likely to stab you in the back as anything else.”

“I agree,” Davis sighed. “He seems as intent on burning everything down as building anything.”

“He’s angry,” Carlyn agreed. “And I’ll admit that I don’t quite understand it. But I swear there’s something there. A scent in the air, a tickle on the skin. I can feel it. I just need to follow the urge.”

Loren and Davis glanced at one another and frowned.

“If he hurts you,” Loren said. “He’ll find out that omegas in harems have teeth too.”

Carlyn smiled and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I’ll be careful, but I have to admit, I’ve dealt with dangerous people before and you’ve never been so on edge about it.”

“It’s always been just business before,” Davis explained. “With Johann and the rest of the Lucretian Legion, it’s very personal. Destroying alphas is a part of the identity of the Legion.”

Picking up his plate, Carlyn shook his head. “You have a point,” he said. “Beautiful and smart. How I am supposed to defend myself against that?”

Carlyn cleaned up from dinner, put away the food, put the dishes in the washer, cleaned up the kitchen. He knew Loren would go behind him and fix what she thought he hadn’t well enough, but he liked to do the heavy lifting, so she could have dessert in peace. Then went back into the living room where Loren and Davis were listening to Josh talk.

“He’s so intense,” Josh sighed. “Everything is life or death with him.”

“Do you not want to sit with Johann again?” Carlyn asked as he leaned down to kiss Josh.

Josh sighed, titled his head to receive the kiss, then settled in the recliner. “No, it’s fine. He’s nice enough. He cares. You get the sense he cares about people! But he’s so serious! And he needs a makeover…”

The room laughed.

“I don’t think a paramilitary group is overly concerned with fashion, Joshy,” Davis muttered.

“They should be,” Josh muttered. “Public perception is important!”

“I’ll try to change his mind on that, if you like,” Carlyn offered.

“Thank you, dear!” Josh chirped, grabbing Carlyn’s hand and squeezing it affectionately.

“You’re welcome. Have good night, guys.”

“Don’t let him smother you,” Loren warned.”

“Yes, love,” Carlyn said as he walked away.

*******

Upstairs, Carlyn found Johann tucked into bed with the light already off.

“Are you okay?” Carlyn asked as he slipped off his clothes.

“Fuck you,” the dark shape in the bed replied.

“You are the most ill-mannered and bad-tempered omega I’ve ever met.”

“Sorry I’m not face down, ass up for every alpha that walks pass me.”

“Well I’m not asking for that.”

“When are you planning on letting me go?”

“As soon as you smell enough like me that I can track you down again when you leave.”

“Great.”

Carlyn hummed to himself and got into his pajamas. Before he got into bed, he went over to the corner of the room and gave the oversized black teddy bear sitting there a pat on the head. Once in bed he pulled Johann partially onto him and tried to get as comfortable as possible.

“How was your day? Did Loren and Josh treat you well?”

“Do any of your harem have jobs?”

“Only Davis.”

Johann laughed bitterly. “Of course! Rich fucking alpha keep his omega dependent on him. Wouldn’t want them having their own money or a way to get away from you.”

“Hey!” Carlyn said. “Loren takes care of the house and it is a fun time job! And she runs a community center. She doesn’t have time for a salary position. And Josh is in school; he wants to focus on his studies. What am I supposed to do? Force them to work when I can support them? That is the exact opposite of what a harem is for! I’m supposed to provide for them.”

“And Davis? Don’t you provide for him?”

“He wants to work. There’s a line between providing for the members of your harem and stopping them from living their lives. Davis works a research lab at the university. He’d go crazy if he couldn’t work.”

“You really don’t know anything about the real world. You live in this precious glass fantasy where you’re some hero-princess and they’re your elegant infatuated love interests.”

“And you live in a nightmare dystopia where every alpha you met wants to abuse you.”

For a moment Johann was silence and Carlyn assumed that he’d finally gotten him to see sense. But the omega scoffed and said,

“You really are stupid, aren’t you?”

“Excuse me?”

“Do you know what the rape statistics are for omega?”

“Honestly, no,” Carlyn admitted. “But if I had to guess, much lower than in the past, since they made raping an omega a federal hate crime.”

“Oh my…” Johann took a slow, deep breath. “Yes,” he said with a remarkably patient tone in his voice that somehow really annoyed Carlyn. “Rape of an omega, especially by an alpha, is a hate crime. But you have to understand, that law is hardly ever used. Alpha are hardly ever prosecuted for the rape of an omega.”

“That’s not true. There’s been dozens of-”

“Yes, yes. I know. Dozens of high-profile cases of alpha getting prosecuted for raping omega. But you know what all those alphas had in common, besides being labelled rapists?”

“… no.”

“They didn’t want any of the omega they slept with as bonded mates. They raped them, then just dumped them somewhere.” Johann spoke in a soft voice, very slowly, as if he didn’t trust Carlyn to understand him if he talked too fast. “Do you know what happens when an alpha rapes an omega then invites them into their harem?”

“Why would they do that? I mean … you don’t rape someone you want in your harem.”

Johann wriggled in his bonds before settling. “You are a precious, precious idiot,” he said. “The word rape is confusing you. Okay. Say you were in close quarters with an omega who didn’t take suppressants and they got close to heat. Following?”

“You’re very rude, but yes.”

“Say you get affected by their pheromones and in the heat of the moment have sex with them. You wake up the next morning, planning on inviting the omega you slept with into your harem, because you had a good time and enjoyed yourself. The thing is, you find they hate you. You see, they never wanted to have sex with you. Maybe they just couldn’t afford their suppressants that season and went to work anyway because they needed the money. And when you threw yourself at them, what you took as rough sex, was actually them fight desperately to get away from you. But you’re an alpha. You’re bigger and stronger. And you’re hopped on their scent. So, you held them down and raped them.”

“I … I would never!”

“Never?”

“Never! I would leave if an omega’s pheromones start to affect me like that.”

“Really? Have you done that before? Left when around an omega in heat?”

“I …” Carlyn thought. He considered every omega he’d ever been around. But most of them were in harems of alpha who tear his throat out for touching what was theirs. He didn’t know many unattached omegas and the three he’d gotten to know well, were now in his own harem. The fact was, he didn’t actually know how he’d react, only how he’d like to think he’d react.

Johann softly, mocking chuckle brought him back from his thoughts.

“I think I might hate you more than I’ve ever hated any alpha,” Johann said. “The bastards, the aggressive, grabby assholes who want every omega face down and ass up, they’re bad. But you? With your white knight mentality? You’re infuriating.”

Johann turned his head away.

“Alpha who invite their rape victim omega into their harem don’t get arrested. It’s scene as the natural order of things. The omega can file rape charges, but the police will usually decline to investigate.

“And the alpha has their scent. The alpha follows the omega until they know everything about them. Even when the scents wear off, by that time, they knew where you live and where you work. It’s easier to say yes than to fight, especially when he’s giving you gifts and saying he loves you.

“And your instincts betray you. You feel him. On your skin, inside you, all the time. You start to remember the incident differently. You dream about it and wake up aroused. Your heart races when he comes to see you. In the end, you think going with him is what’s best for you. This is why I say beta are the only sane people.”

Carlyn held Johann in the dark and frowned.

*******

The next day Carlyn did some research, checked the inventory for some supplies, planned a party, and dropped off some donations at the community center. He had dinner with his underbosses at the compound and arrived home late. After checking on his harem, who were settled in for the night with a movie and some snacks, Carlyn dragged himself to his room.

The room was dark, and Johann was settled under the blankets. Carlyn looked at him as he undressed in the gloom, pulled on his pajamas, and gave his teddy bear and extra pat on the head. Then he walked over to the bed and climbed in. Carlyn almost didn’t want to curl up to Johann, but he did it anyway. Johann’s hair smiled like Josh’s shampoo. It was comforting. Carlyn breathed it in and closed his eyes.

“Nothing to argue with me about tonight?” Johann’s voice said softly.

“Johann. Oh. I thought you were asleep already.”

“I was just dozing. I’m a light sleeper.”

“I … okay.” Carlyn paused for a few minutes before speaking again. “I, um, looked up the things you told me about.”

Johann gave a humorless laugh. “And?”

“I … didn’t think that it was so … plain. I mean, I don’t know. I read that one study estimates that half of omegas who report being raped by an alpha drop the charges and bond with their rapist. And that one third of omegas that are raped don’t bother to file charges. They will say, if it can be anonymous that their alpha caught them off their suppressants and raped them but say they didn’t file any charges. It’s like there’s this disconnect in their heads between what the know they want, and what they’ll allow an alpha to do.”

“Shocker,” Johann said drily. “I told you. The pheromones mess with your head. They make you thinks things that aren’t real. Did you know that omegas are less likely to have a powerful position at work? They’re less likely to be promoted, less like to get recommendations at school. They’re less likely to get leadership positions in groups. It’s because people think we’re stupid. They think we can’t think for ourselves. And we believe them.

“Generations of omega getting caught off guard by heat, fucking the first alpha that shows them their dick, and wasting the rest of their life on them. Even we don’t believe we have good decision-making skills. Suppressants even the playing field. They were supposed the be the great equalizer. Omegas free to do what they, think what they want and fuck who they want. But the healthcare systems in this country is fucked and suppressants aren’t cheap. Sometimes insurance won’t pay for them. Sometimes you lose them.

“Sometimes you grow up with someone; they’re your best friend. An then you hit puberty; they’re an alpha, you’re an omega, and they throw away your precious suppressants, so they can be alone with you while you go into heat, because they like you. And you learn you can’t trust an alpha.”

Carlyn hugged Johann without thinking. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know what it was like for omegas. Every omega I’ve ever know has been in a harem and taken care of and loved.”

“You don’t know anything about the real world,” Johann muttered. “You’ve never concerned if maybe they wanted to be free, instead of loved.”

“I thought they were free. Who wouldn’t want to be loved and pampered? I loved it.” Carlyn sighed. “I called a friend of mine today. A lawyer.”

“To ask him about your legal standing after kidnapping and falsely imprisoning someone?”

“Could you not be unpleasant for a moment?”

Johann huffed, but said nothing else.

“I called my friend who’s a lawyer. I had something to ask him. He’s been advising the Fangs for a while.”

“A crooked lawyer for organized crime. Wonderful.”

“So, I asked him,” Carlyn went on, ignoring Johann, “what would if I slipped up and got an omega mad at me. He asks me, in what way? I tell him that I’ve had an omega staying with me for the last few days, one that I’m attracted to, who hasn’t been taken their suppressants since they’ve been staying with me. I say that we’ve been talking a lot and alone a lot, and that last night things escalated, and we ended up having sex. I told him I wanted to invite them into my harem, but that this morning they were packing to leaving and didn’t want to speak to me, and that I was afraid that I’d stepped over a line. I said, “I think a raped them.” I actually used those words. You know what he told me? That, “That’s not what rape is.” He said if I intended to bond with him, it’s not rape. And then he sent me the paperwork for added someone to my harem legally.”

“Of course he did.”

“I … couldn’t really believe it.”

“My god, you are sheltered and stupid.”

“Yea. Maybe I am.” Carlyn pressed his nose into Johann’s dirty blonde hair and breathed in. “Did Josh wash your hair?”

“Loren did. She was worried about me.”

“Was it nice?”

“It was fine.”

Carlyn shifted a little and squeezed Johann. “I’m tired,” he muttered. He felt Johann tense in his embrace. “Am I holding you too tight?”

“You’re not a fucking teenager,” Johann hissed. “Be aware of your body, alpha!”

“Hmm?” Carlyn shifted again, then realized what the content, drowsy, needy feeling he had was. He was aroused, half-hard cock pressing into Johann’s leg. Carlyn sighed, disappointed, ashamed, but somehow not surprised. “When _is_ the last time you took your suppressants?”

“How long have I been here?”

“This would be night three. Are you close to heat?”

“I guess if you rape me, we’ll know.”

“I am _not_ going to rape you,” Carlyn grumbled and grabbed a smaller pillow to shove into his lap. Blocked from rubbing up against Johann, Carlyn got as comfortable as he could.

“When are you going to let me go?” Johann asked.

“After six nights, or when your heat is over if you go into heat. And before you ask, I still won’t touch you, even if you go into heat.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t need you to believe me.”

*******

The next three nights were hell. Johann didn’t go into heat, but the days off his suppressant sleeping in the same bed with an alpha had sent his pheromone levels through the roof. His scent was intoxicating, but his temper was awful. Carlyn was thrilled that he was tied up and mostly harmless. He considered tranquilizing Johann but felt bad enough for what he’d was going through, so he left it.

They slept with a pillow between them, because Johann hissed when Carlyn touched him, and Carlyn was hard within minutes of lying down next to him. They didn’t talk during the three nights. There was nothing to say. Neither of them were very happy about the situation. Maybe if Carlyn was a better person he’d just let Johann go, but there was the Fangs to think about. He couldn’t let Johann and the Lucretian Legion get off scot free. There had to be some sort of resolution to the situation they started. Or at least that’s what Carlyn told himself as he lied in bed, miserably drunk on Johann’s pheromones and running through reason why he wasn’t out of his mind for not just cutting his losses.

Little voices in head told him to fuck Johann until neither of them knew their own names. He ignored them by biting the inside of his mouth every once in a while.

Finally, the sun rose on Johann’s sixth night with Carlyn. Carlyn got up and took a long cold shower while his harem tended to Johann. They cleaned him up, got him some breakfast and discussed how he’d get home without some alpha dragging him away to do what Carlyn hadn’t. As Carlyn dressed in the bathroom, he overheard Loren coaxing Johann into drinking on of her homemade brews.

“Now, come on, honey.” Loren’s sweet voice cooed. “I know it smells bad, but my Mama swore by it. Keeps alphas in a ten-foot circle around you for about forty-eight hours.”

“It smells like it keep everything in circle around me. God, what’s in it.”

“Some herbs I’ve growing in the garden. You never know when modern medicine will fail you. A packed you some to take until you get back on your suppressants.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. Now take it.”

“Just take it,” Davis muttered. “Unless you want some alpha to raw your ass on your way home.”

There was silence, and then a series of quick gulping sounds, before someone - presumably Johann - started coughing.

“Oh my god. Couldn’t you have put something for taste in it?” Johann gasped between coughs.

“I thought you were a tough guy,” Loren said, laughter in her voice.

Carlyn left the bathroom and came into the bedroom dressed in his pajamas. He was too exhausted from the last three nights of controlling himself to go into work, even if he’d missed that last two days.

“How do you feel, Johann?” he asked.

“Awful,” Johann snapped.

“Figures,” Carlyn replied. “I’m going to get some breakfast.”

He walked downstairs, still bleary and disoriented from the lack of sleep, and still tasting Johann’s pheromones on the back of his throat. Breakfast was already made, waffles and sausage with coffee and orange juice. Carlyn drank a whole glass of orange juice, hoping to wash the taste of Johann out of his mouth, before piling up a plate with food and sitting down at the kitchen table.

The waffles and syrup were too sweet, and the sausage were too rich. The entire meal gave him a stomachache and made him feel even more sluggish, but he supposed that was for the best until Johann was safely out of arm’s reach. Carlyn ate slowly, to give Loren’s mixture time to work in Johann’s system, but his breakfast was cut off but his harem and Johann coming into the kitchen before he was done.

Johann was free of the rope, walking by himself with a backpack slung over one shoulder. Loren, Davis, and Josh were gathered around him. They seemed comfortable being close him. Carlyn, however, almost lost his breakfast at the smell of Johann.

“Oh god, I forgot how potent that stuff is!” Carlyn said putting one hand over his mouth and nose.

“Is he serious?” Johann asked, disbelief etched on his features.

“It only works on alphas,” Loren chuckled. “I told you.”

“God, please leave, Johann. I’ll find you in a few days when you’ve had time to give my offer to your bosses.”

“No!” Johann snapped. “You stay the fuck away. I’ll tell them and come back. I promise. You really hold your end of the bargain. I never would have believed it. I didn’t believe it. But …” Johann paused and frowned. “But you really didn’t hurt me. I still don’t trust you. And it’s not up to me whether we take your offer. But a deal is a deal. You part up your end. Now I’ll put up mine, in exchange for being let go safely. I’ll be back with the answer soon. And then we’re done.”

“Fair enough.”

Johann turned his back to Carlyn and faced the other omega in the room. “Thanks, you guys. I don’t understand what you see in him and this life you have here, but you’ve got good heads om your shoulders. And if you ever need help, the Legion will be there for you.”

Loren smiled. “And if Legion needs food and medicine, the community outreach center will be there for them,” she said, then hugged Johann tightly. She held him for a moment, before letting him go with a kiss on the cheek. “Be careful out there, Johann.”

“And don’t your ideals cloud your vision,” Davis said. “The world isn’t as simple as you want to make it.” He touched Johann’s shoulder. “Stay safe.”

“Stay safe and get a better outfit,” Josh muttered. “You look like a Battleground NPC.” Josh nudged Johann. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

Johann laughed and shook his head before being enveloped in a hug by all three of Carlyn’s harem. Carlyn stood by and watched, glad to see Johann go for practical reasons, but hungry for him to stay.

 


	4. Chapter 4

It took three days and a lot of attention from Loren, Josh, and Davis for Carlyn to get over his time with Johann. He worked from home, overseeing details of the Fangs operation, and receiving his sub-bosses in his bedroom.

During the three days at home, Lyric, curious to know what happened with the robbery at the compound, arrived at the house. Carlyn received her in his bedroom with all of his harem, still naked from sleeping. Lyric assumed what she wanted about what had happened with Johann, and Carlyn let her assumptions stand uncorrected. In any case, she was delighted.

“Finally acting like an alpha, little brother,” Lyric said. “I’m proud of you.”

Carlyn took her compliment with smile-like wince. Lyric stayed for a few hours and looked over the cleanup details of compound before leaving. Alone with his harem, Carlyn was ready to settle in for the evening. He was dead tired.

Then the doorbell rang. Since Josh, Loren, and Davis were all curled up watching a movie, and Carlyn was up, heading for the stairs away, he told them not to get up and went for the door himself. He figured it was his father or brothers, the only people in his life who showed up unannounced to his house. But when he opened the door, he didn’t find family on the other side, he found Johann.

Johann wasn’t dressed in military style fatigues. He wore jeans and a t-shirt with sneakers. His dirty blonde hair was loose and fell nearly to his shoulders. Carlyn hadn’t noticed it was so long or even that it had been pulled back. Johann was frowning, but he looked so good. He smelled clean, but his pheromones were low and unnoticeable.

“Johann?”

“Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

They walked inside. And once the door was shut and locked Carlyn lead Johann into the kitchen where they could talk.

“Glad I got dressed this afternoon,” Carlyn muttered.

“Lounging naked?” Johann said. “Alphas love to show off, don’t they?”

“It’s more of comfort thing, really. Can I get you something to drink? Ice water? Juice?”

“You’re not going to offer me wine like a fucking grown up?”

Carlyn shifted in place. “I didn’t think you’d want me to offer you alcohol.”

“Let’s not play stupid games, Carlyn,” Johann sighed. “If you’d wanted to have your way with me, you could have had it. I’m not an idiot.”

Carlyn said nothing but turned and took down two wine glasses and a bottle of red wine. After pouring, he handed one to Johann who drained half the glass at once before licking his lips.

“That’s good.”

“Glad you like it,” Carlyn muttered, then sipped his own wine.

“The Legion wants to know what your offering.”

“Anything you would steal, I’ll give to you.”

“And they want to know what you get out of this. Something-something instinct, isn’t an answer.”

Laughing, Carlyn swished his wine. What was he expecting to get out of this? What did he want?

“I want to know about the Lucretian Legion,” he said honestly. “I want to know what you’re up to, what your goals are, and if they interfere with the Fangs’ goals.”

“They don’t.”

“I’d believe you if you hadn’t blown a hole in one of our walls.”

“Right.” Johann muttered. “Stay here a minute.” He finished off his glass and turned and walked out of the kitchen. “Hey guys,” Carlyn heard him say as passed through the living room.

Carlyn waited. In the distance he heard the front door open and close. He drank from his glass slowly, wondering what Johann was doing, wondering if this was the last time he’d ever see him. After a few minutes the front door opened again, then closed. Carlyn didn’t speak to Josh, Davis and Loren on his way back to the kitchen. He came in and crossed his arms over his chest.

“The Legion accepts.”

“I see.”

“There’s a condition.”

“Which is?”

Johann looked at him, and that unmistakable look of rage crossed his features for a moment. “I’ll be staying to keep an eye on you for the length of this agreement. This … pretend bond is what we’ll go with. I’ll be your only link to the Legion. You get no other members, no locations, no nothing. You talk to them through me, or not at all. Deal?”

Carlyn kept his face neutral. “Deal,” he said.

*******

Johann’s apartment in the heart of downtown was a small unassuming studio, perfect for a single omega all on his own. While Johann packed with the help of Josh and Davis, Loren took a long slow walk around the place, her tiny notebook and favorite pen in hand scribbling notes and making little drawings. Carlyn stood in the middle of the apartment, not touching anything, as he’d been instructed to do as they came up the stairs and trying to stay out of everyone’s way.

Carlyn would admit that he hadn’t been expecting such a cheerful place to be Johann’s home. The kitchen was bright and clean, with simple, practical dishware and organized almost Spartan cabinets with no doors on them. The bed area was tidy and under filled, with a dresser next to the closet, a mirror tucked behind a privacy screen and a bed partially hidden behind a tuck curtain hanging from rollers on the ceiling. In the living area was a dining table and few chairs behind a small sofa, both set in front of a TV. Off to the side was a set of weights, a mat, a punching bag, and a pull up bar stand. Between the little gym and the TV was a bookcase filled with DVDs and table top games.

What the apartment did not look was lair of member of radical paramilitary vigilante group. The Lucretian Legion’s coat of arms, which Johann had described as an omega symbol above two crossed swords and haloed by a laurel wreath, couldn’t be found anywhere.

When he thought about it, Carlyn supposed it made sense. Nothing connecting him to the Fangs was on display in his eight-hundred-thousand dollar, 5-bedroom manor house, because he had guest over and threw parties and that would just be stupid. Still somehow, Carlyn had expected Johann to be less subtle than he was.

“I like your place,” Carlyn called across the apartment.

“It is darling,” Loren said. “Take as much as you want. Our home is you home.”

“I like it too,” Johann muttered. “I don’t think I’ll be taking much though. It’s not like I’ll be inviting anyone over.”

“Won’t that be suspicious?” Davis asked.

Carlyn winced as he watched Johann turned his full attention on Davis. The two omegas watched each other for a second, before Davis gave a cheeky smile and Johann sighed.

“I’ll take the games and the DVDs. There’s no point and leaving anything I like in an empty apartment anyway, I guess.”

“Sensible,” Davis agreed and went back to packing.

Deciding his input would only make Johann angry, Carlyn turned his back to the bed and wandered over the bookshelf. He wasn’t going to touch anything. He just wanted to see what sort of interests Johann had.

“Are you going to pack that stuff,” Johann asked.

“You told me not to touch anything, so I was going to do that.”

Johann sighed. “You can pack my bookcase.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll pack the kitchen,” Loren called. “I want to unpack it as well, so I need to know where everything is.”

Davis, Josh and Johann packed the bedroom and kitchen. Loren packed the kitchen. Carlyn packed the living area. The movers bringing the bigger items downstairs to be brought to Carlyn’s house or to storage were three alphas. It had been three days since they’d stayed together, and Johann had taken several does of Loren’s alpha repelling tonic, but he still smelled enough like Carlyn for the movers to tell what was going on - or supposed to be going - from context. They threw glances, and though they thankfully said nothing, they directed their questions to Carlyn, not to any of the omega. Normally Carlyn was find answering for his harem. But Johann’s gaze burned into the back of his head and he knew how Johann felt about the situation.

“Ask Johann,” he kept saying.

The movers would ask Johann the question, get their answer, and asked Carlyn the next question, starting the cycle all over again. By the time they were home and seeing the movers off, Carlyn was exhausted.

He fell face-up on the sofa and closed his eyes, happy to be home. Before they’d moved Johann’s things, he’d already set up automatic payment to Johann’s account to pay for his apartment, bills, and storage lot while he was staying with him. Loren was adding Johann’s things to the kitchen, and Josh, Davis and Johann were putting away Johann’s belongings in the spare bedroom. Carlyn was just about to drift off into a nap, when someone sat down on the sofa by his hip. He opened his eyes to find Johann sitting shift-shouldered on the sofa, staring straight ahead.

“Johann?”

“Davis told me … he thought I should come sit with you. Josh wants to get my room ready for me as a gift and wanted me out of the way anyhow so… You’re not fucking me. Ever!”

“We agreed to that,” Carlyn reminded Johann.

“But that means … I have to sleep in the bed with you. So I smell like you.”

The thought had actually occurred to Carlyn, but Johann was right, just living in the same house, especially one as big as his was, wouldn’t be enough. They would have to sleep together.

“How often do I have to sleep in your bed?” Johann snapped.

“Um … a few nights a week. Maybe every other night.”

“Fine. We’ll start tonight.”

“I’m pretty beat. I was going to go to bed soon.”

“Fine.”

They said goodnight to Loren, who gave them each a kiss, Carlyn on the mouth, Johann on the forehead, then walked up the stairs together. Carlyn took a detour to Johann’s room to get his pajamas, which were shoved at him through a crack in the door, then went to his own room. They changed together, because while they didn’t like each other, they weren’t going to act like feuding children.

Johann got into the bed first, climbing into the same side he’d been kept on before and making himself comfortable with aggressive movements. When he was deep under the blankets, Carlyn turned off the lights, gave his teddy bear a pat, and slipped into his side of the bed. The urge to turn his back on Johann and simply go to sleep was surprisingly strong. It wasn’t that Carlyn was uncomfortable with Johann in his bed. It was the exact opposite. It felt right. He wanted yawn, say goodnight, and fall into a dreamless, undisturbed sleep. But this was technically business.

Edging closer, Carlyn placed an arm over Johann’s waist, who surprisingly, put his hand over his.

“Don’t get any ideas, alpha. It’s just more comfortable this way.”

“We already agreed we wouldn’t have sex. There’s nothing you do, no way you could touch me, that make me break that promise.”

“Hmph.” Johann began to dig his nails into the back of Carlyn’s hand but stopped after a moment and relaxed. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

 

*******

The next day Johann’s room still wasn’t finished, so Carlyn gave him room to dress before they went downstairs for breakfast. Loren gave the grand tour of the kitchen and pointed out where she’d put all of Johann’s things, while Johann served himself. Carlyn waited for Johann to sit down at the table to get his own breakfast.

“You can’t avoid him forever,” Loren said as she poured him a coffee. “Him smelling like you won’t be enough for long.”

“I just want to give him some space. He’s so jumpy.”

“He’ll come around.” She handed him then coffee then shooed him away to sit in the dining room.

Carlyn sat in his normal seat at the table, a place Johann must have guested at, because he was at the exact opposite side of the table. Sighing, Carlyn watched him for a moment, considering his options. After a moment he decided to start eating and begin the conversation casually.

“You know,” he said between bites of eggs, “you can’t just smell like me and otherwise avoid me.”

“Excuse me?” Johann muttered from behind his glass of orange juice.

“I mean if seem to hate each other, people might get suspicious about things. Especially when I start donating things to the Lucretian Legion.”

Johann was silent for several moments, eating while watching Carlyn impassively. Carlyn looked backed just as coolly, refusing to let Johann jerk him around. At last Johann shrugged and turned his attention back to his plate.

“I’ll take care of it,” he said.

“How?” Carlyn asked.

“Never mind it. Can I go into your base with you today? We need another truck for an upcoming demonstration and I want to drop it off.”

“Fine.” Carlyn said. “Better get the base used to seeing you around, in any case.”

They finished breakfast in silence and Carlyn took their plates and glasses into the kitchen to be put into the dishwasher. He kissed Loren goodbye for the day and told her to tell Josh and Davis he loved them, then headed for the garage. Johann sat in the passenger’s seat and frowned out of the window as they pulled out of the garage.

“Last time you were in this car you were unconscious,” Carlyn said lightly.

“Fuck you,” Johann said almost light-heartedly.

“I’m just making conversation.”

“How about you talk about something useful. Who should I know in the Fangs? There’s that beta I saw. Never seen a beta a bunch of alphas backed away from so quickly.”

“You must mean Adison,” Carlyn laughed. “She’s terrifying. I’m pretty sure she’s the only one who could raise a coup against me, but she loves and respects me, so I’m safe. She’s whip smart, handles the first stage of organizing everything. With her at the Fangs and Loren at home I have most of my day-to-day life plotted out for me. And she’s a fighter. She could maybe even take you, one-on-one.”

“Maybe. Who else is there?”

“Along with Adison is my two other under-bosses Becka, and Raji.”

“Those assholes who helped drug me?”

“Yes, them. Becka was the whip wielding one.”

“I remember,” Johann hissed.

“She’s never hurt an omega, Johann. She asks permission before doing what she does. Verbal permission. It’s a game. She’s not bad.”

“Whatever. What’s the hardass into?”

“Raji? He’s mostly into classic music and good food. His omegas are a little spoiled. I don’t think they’ve lifted anything heavier than a wine bottle since bonding with him, but that’s how he likes them, spoiled rotten. He spends a small fortune on presents for them and their kids. He takes them on vacation once a season, right after their heat to reward them for … getting through heat, I guess.”

“Good lord, what the actual fuck?” Johann shook his head. “And I figured you thought of yourself as a fairytale princess, shining armor and all. This guy beats even you!”

“Look I was raised very traditionally. As an alpha I was told it was my job to provide for and protect my harem. But Raji goes overboard. He left once and was gone for a day and half. I told me later that one of his omegas was feeling lonely because he’d been working so much, and just felt bad about it. I almost hit him. I had just taken over and we were in the middle of turf war with the Red Wolves.”

“Can you trust this guy?”

“We have an understanding now.”

“You hit him.”

“I… yes. I lost my temper. I was sorry about it later. I didn’t tell him though because I could tell he respected me for standing my ground, idiot.”

Johann let out a small chuckle. “Delightful.”

*******

Carlyn walked into the main house of the base with his arm Johann’s shoulders. Johann had his arms cross and shoulders hunched but was leaned into his embrace. The members of Fangs who saw them move through the building paused at the sight of them, and a few growled their approval, smirked, or nudged Carlyn. Even though Johann said nothing and even pressed himself harder into Carlyn’s side, Carlyn knew he was seething.

“I’m sorry,” Carlyn said when they were alone in his office with the door shut.

“I didn’t expect to enjoy any of this,” Johann said. “I’m in deep cover behind enemy lines. I wasn’t expecting it to be comfortable.”

“I want it to be comfortable for you. I don’t want you to hate this. I’m supposed to be your ally. Me, if no one else.”

Johann staring at Carlyn for a moment before sighing. “You don’t know anything about the real world.”

“Maybe,” Carlyn relented. He walked around the desk and unlocked his computer with a press of his thumb. “You said you needed one more truck?”

“Yea.”

“For what?” Carlyn’s computer started up and he sat down to begin the transfer of the truck into the Legion’s hands.

“Redistribution of necessary amenities.”

Carlyn scoffed. “What’s that in real talk? Come on Johann. You know who you’re talking to.”

“A drug lord and gun runner.”

“So be real with me. I won’t judge you.”

Johann sighed. “We’re going to hit a pharmaceutical lab and take a few seasons worth of heat suppressants. Then we’re were going to give them out to low- and no-income omega who want to keep alpha off their backs.”

“Sounds legit. Much money in that?”

One moment Carlyn was looking at the screen, then he was colliding with his computer screen full speed. Instinct kicked and Carlyn pushed away from the desk, hunched to avoid the rest of the blow and swung out hard with his arm. His arm connected with Johann’s stomach, but only lightly as Johann had jumped back to avoid it. Carlyn lunged for him, hands aiming for his neck, which Johann must have seen coming because he crossed his arms in front of his neck and kicked to throw Carlyn off his balance. As Carlyn started to fall towards the floor he adjusted his aim and put all his weight on Johann’s waist, bring them toward the floor, but not without hitting the table behind Johann and knocking everything off it in a loud crash.

Johann hissed, put both hands on Carlyn’s face, and pushed, his knees coming up to dig into Carlyn’s torso. Carlyn’s growled, climbed to his knees, and used his superior size to pin Johann down at the wrists and thigh, hands on his wrists above Johann’s head, and one knee on his thigh.

“Stay down!” Carlyn growled, but his wasn’t the only growl.

From the door was a small chorus of sounds and when Carlyn looked, Becka was in the open doorway, flanked by Jackson and another, lower, alpha Molly. Jackson and Molly were smiling wicked, nudging each other and Becka. Becka looked more concerned.

“We heard crashing,” Becka explained. “I thought you need help with … I guess you didn’t.”

Before Carlyn could say anything, Johann moved, but not to attack him. He leaned up as best he could and nudged him with his head, roughly but affectionately.

“Hey,” he whispered and, when Carlyn looked at him, gave him a questioning look.

Carlyn was on verge of stupidly as what Johann was doing, and weren’t they fighting anymore, but Becka spoke first.

“I’m going to just shut the door.” She did, and the room went quiet for a second before Johann said,

“Get the fuck off me.”

“What was that?” Carlyn asked.

“Acting,” Johann said dryly. “Now get the fuck off me.”

Carlyn withdrew off Johann but was no closer to figuring out what sort of situation he was in. “I don’t understand,” he said. “Acting? What about you hitting me?  What was that?”

“You’re thick,” Johann muttered as he climbed to his feet. “I’ll walk you through it. You asked if there’s money in what we’re going to do.”

“A fair question,” Carlyn said.

“You weren’t listening to the explanation you asked for, were you? Typical. We’re giving the suppressants to low- and no-income omega, which implies what?”

“That they can’t afford the suppressants and therefore any money made would be ill-gotten, which is not what the Lucretian Legion is about.”

“You’re dumb as a bag of rocks, but you learn fast.”

“Thank you. You could have explained that instead of hitting me.”

“But hitting you was so cathartic,” Johann sighed. “And besides, the situation worked to our advantage.”

“How?”

Johann walked around Carlyn and righted the chair that had been up-ended during their fight. “Rumors,” he said. “I was going to plant some rumors that we had an especially rough sex life. It would explain why I’m so combative with you.”

Carlyn gave a full-throated laugh. “No, it wouldn’t! That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Of course it does. Alpha believe that every omega that’s combative just needs to be fucked by an alpha. And the more combative and unpleasant an omega is, the more the typical alpha believes they need, nay want, to be dominate by a strong alpha. Docile omegas are assumed to fragile and need gentle care. Aggressive omegas are assumed to need taming. So the less I actually seem to like you, the more the alpha around you will assume you’re fucking me super hard because that’s what I must need and want.”

Staring, opening mouthed, Carlyn processed what Johann said. It didn’t sound right. And yet, Becka and the others had immediate seen them and assumed they were doing something intimate. Sure, Johann had nudged him, but could they really not see they hadn’t been being affectionate.

“Alpha … are tremendously stupid.”

Johann chuckled, a surprisingly genuinely sound. “You don’t know anything about the real world, do you?”

“Hmm,” Carlyn muttered and sat down at his desk. “I’m sorry I asked about making money off your project. Force of habit. Let’s get your truck.”

“We’ll drive it to the drop off this evening,” Johann said, turning his back to Carlyn. “I acquaint myself with your base until then. You do you work. I’ll amuse myself.”


	5. Chapter 5

To Carlyn’s surprise, Johann spent the whole day at the Fang’s base without getting into any fights. He went around making mumbled apologies to people, asking them to excuse the Lucretian Legion for the damage done during their strike on the base.

“We weren’t allies then,” was what he said, according to Raji who told Carlyn about it later. “It was just business. You understand.”

The Fangs took it all in stride. To them, it seemed Johann was officially Carlyn’s bonded mate and it was “apologies accepted” and water under the bridge.

“He’s a tough little meg,” Jackson said almost affectionately, leaning at Carlyn’s doorway. “It was an honor to have my ass kicked by him. He must be good bed.”

“Amazing,” Carlyn said with a smile, even though his skin was crawling. “Where is he now?”

“Having lunch in the yard with some of guys. They’re looking after him for you. Some of the betas want him to train with them because he’s built like a fucking tank.” Jackson chuckled. “I mean, he certainly does fill out that t-shirt and jeans.” He growled in the back of his throat.

“Keep your hands to yourself,” Carlyn warned with tight smile. “Or Johann will rip your dick off and I’ll watch with him as you bleed out.”

“Right, right. He’s yours. Lucky.”

Jackson walked away and Carlyn had to paused and think about how that nagging feeling of annoyance he’d always had with his own sex was blooming into outright dislike for them.

But while Carlyn spent the day swallowing bullshit compliments about his new relationship, Johann spent the day endearing himself to the Fangs as an irritable, combative, but mostly importantly secretly tamed omega. By the time they left the base, Johann in the truck, and Carlyn following in his personal truck, the whole base seemed to be smitten with Johann to some degree.

They drove for some time, Johann leading and Carlyn following. They left the city and drove into the country, up into the mountain were the house became more and more sparse, until the seemed to disappear altogether. Finally, Johann pulled off the road onto a trail and cut the engine. Carlyn pulled up behind the truck and waited. In a moment, Johann appeared next to the passenger side of the truck, opened the door, and got in.

“We can leave,” Johann said.

“Should we leave the truck here?”

“It’s fine. It won’t be here long.”

“Should we wait?”

Johann chuckled sarcastically. “You’d love that. No. You see no one but me. Drive.”

Seeing he wasn’t going to get nowhere, and not wanting to get into another fight with Johann, Carlyn did as he was told. He backed up into the road, turned the car around and did the best he could to navigate his way back down the dark mountain roads. To break up the silence in the car, Carlyn talked.

“So, we’re getting along, aren’t we?”

“I guess,” Johann muttered.

“I mean, we are, aren’t we?”

“I don’t I want to kill you, so there’s that.” Johann smiled tightly from what Carlyn could see from the driver’s seat.

“That’s … good. I mean, we have very different lives and see the world differently. I want to know that I can trust you to keep explain things to me, and not fly off the handle again and lash out at me.”

“You’re talking about earlier today.” Johann and slumped in the seat. “I said I was sorry.”

“No, you didn’t. You said it cathartic.”

“Well, I meant to say I was sorry.” Johann paused and in the interim Carlyn wasn’t sure what to say. Luckily Johann spoke again after some silence. “Look, I am sorry, Carlyn. I lost my temper. There was something about you wanting to make money off the work we’re doing, off of the most vulnerable and helpless omega that was so typical of an alpha that made me lose my sense of … you know …”

“Not hitting someone over the head?”

“Yea.”

“I didn’t mean to be cruel.”

“You can’t help it.”

“And that’s what I want to talk about. My nature, my upbringing, everything about me is an offense to you. Things I see as normal could be something you see as horrible. I need you to talk to me from now on. Maybe the world is as you say it is, but maybe it doesn’t have to be. I’ve always been told I act more like an omega than an alpha, maybe I could start really living up to that and good some good, but I’m going to need a teacher. You have to be patient with me.”

“I suppose. Frankly, you’re less of pain than the rest of your sex. I doubted, when I came to live with you, that you’d ever say anything that’d make me break cover. I was almost disappointed when I said what you did.”

“And that’s why I need you to promise. I have no idea what over things I could casually say that could offend you. For instance, … I could have a conversation with some about pairing centers.”

Carlyn turned his head towards Johann for just a moment, just in time to see his reaction. It was just as he expected. Johann’s entire body tensed as if an electric current has passed through it. His jaw locked up as he frowned.

Pairing centers had been outlawed decades ago to keep the peace. They were still around, of course. No church, or school, or job could legally force an omega into one, but family certainly could. No business could operate as a pairing center, but legal businesses certainly did. But there was a stigma around them. No one admitted to forcing their child into a pairing center, the public opinion was worse than the jail time. Businesses accused of operating as a pairing center offend used the defense that they were brothels and only coincidently did the alpha john end of bonding with the omega sex workers, and the payments made to the brothels were to pay off any debts the workers had. The chargers for running the brothel weren’t as bad.

But that was an alpha’s perspective.

To omega pairing centers were state sanctioned slavery. It used to be that omegas couldn’t continue in school, get a job, register to vote, lease an apartment, open a bank account if they weren’t signed up at a pairing center. The pair center took all their information, height, weight, every measurement, their job, their hobbies, even their friends on occasion. And when that was done, alphas would pay to be paired with them by center and the center’s word was law. An omega who refused a suitor approved by a pairing center could be kicked out of the system and have every right stripped from in the process. Sometimes the omega child of a rich alpha would pay to have control over who their child bonded with, but that wasn’t a guarantee no matter who the omega was.

The male omega who’d mothered Loren had been bonded by a pairing center. Her father had been pregnant more often than not because that’s how his alpha mate liked him. Loren, his oldest, had been the only child he’d been allowed to keep. Loren’s father had been bonded to a male alpha who couldn’t pass on his family name anyways and had no intention of letting his harem bare a bunch of kids he’d be responsible for whom he couldn’t even give his name to.

Thinking about it now, Carlyn wondered why he hadn’t asked Loren more about how she’d grown up. Maybe he really didn’t know anything about the world. Loren had known about the Lucretian Legion, and she’d told him about the pairing centers that had closed just before he was born. Maybe he should have been asking her more questions. He’d thought leaving her past alone had been the respectful thing to do, but maybe it had been the ignorant thing to do.

Carlyn glanced over at Johann again. It had been several minutes since he’d spoken.

“Johann?”

The silence stretched on for another few seconds before Johann spoke.

“You would never, ever, in a million years support pairing centers,” he said calmly. “You’re just trying to rile me up.”

“No, I’m not. I’m serious. I mean … I could support … the ease of it. Just go in, fill out a questionnaire and get matched up with the omega who fits the profile. Easy.”

“Oh my … One, you said you ‘could’ support this, which implies you don’t. You couldn’t even get the sentence out properly. Two, all the pauses while you try to think up something you supposedly supported. Plus, the weak-sauce argument. And, you’re a princess in a shining armor, you could never bond with some you don’t know. You don’t even have a proper harem in your house. Each of your mates have their own room! If you have kids, you’re going to need a bigger house! No. You would never stomach finding partners through chattel slavery system. It’s not you.”

“And if the Lucretian Legion said it was? If they told you I was threat, and order you to get rid of me? You said, you explained that alpha who are too big of threat to let live you get rid of. What if I become a threat?”

“You’re not a threat, Carlyn. You’re annoying.”

“And if your bosses say otherwise?”

“Anything you do, I’ll know about way before they do. They could never tell me anything about you that I don’t already know. You’re not a threat. Not to us.”

Carlyn sighed. He figured he should drop it. This wasn’t getting him anywhere. Then he thought of one more thing.

“What if the Fangs get into politics? You know, greasing judges and prosecutors and politicians.”

“What does that have to do with us?”

“Laws affect omega. What if the people the Fangs support are your enemies?”

Johann didn’t respond right away. They reached an intersection, which allowed Carlyn to look at him. Johann really did fill out his t-shirt and jeans. He was gorgeous. Carlyn wished the omega didn’t hate him so much.

“I don’t think you would do that,” Johann said at last. “At least not on purpose. You’re too soft. And if you found out afterwards, well you’re not a man of legal ways, Carlyn. I expect you could do something about the judge or politician with those sorts of ideas.

“Are you asking me to possibly kill a politician the Lucretian Legion disapproves of?”

“I’m asking you to do to this hypothetical alpha what you do to any alpha who displeased you that much. Does omega abuse bother you, or doesn’t it?”

The light changed and Carlyn began to drive.

*******

At first, Johann laid pretty low in Carlyn’s house. He went with him to the Fang’s base of operations and worked out in the yard, earning him stares and applause. He stayed home when the Fangs became too much for him deal with and help Loren and Davis with the housework. When that became boring, he went shopping with Josh and met him on the campus for lunch. The five of them, Carlyn and his new four-member harem, had dinner together and Carlyn heard all about how Johann was adjusting to his life.

And course, Johann had to act like a member of Carlyn’s harem, so had come out on outing with them. The first began early one Saturday, on a morning when Carlyn and Johann had slept apart.

Carlyn knocked on Johann’s door, and when he didn’t receive an answer, knocked again and called out.

“Johann?! Are you up?”

“What do you want?” Johann shouted back.

“We’re going out today. Breakfast will be ready soon.”

“Fuck off!”

Chuckling, Carlyn shook his head. “You can either come down on your own, or Loren will come to get you. Your choice.” With that Carlyn walked away. He’d done what was asked of him, and Loren couldn’t ask him to be a miracle worker.

Downstairs a full breakfast was ready to be eaten, and Carlyn filled a plate from the kitchen, before sitting down to eat. He wasn’t concerned with Johann. Either Johann would be sensible, or he would find out why Loren was a boss, that was all.

About halfway through a plate, Carlyn happened to look up to find Johann dressed and walking through the dining room.

“I put the fear of Loren in you?” Carlyn teased.

“Who wouldn’t be afraid of Loren?” Josh said from behind Johann. “I hate getting up early and even I’m here. Hey Jo, if I fill a plate of hash browns will you eat them with me?”

“Eat a plate of hash browns, Josh,” Johann said. “It won’t kill you. I’m having one.”

“Well, if you’re having one then I’ll have one, too.”

Davis joined them as Josh and Johann sat down at the table, and Loren sat down last, at Carlyn right hand, smiling at them all.

“So, Josh,” Loren said as she stirred two sugars into her black coffee. “What are we doing today?”

“We’re getting Jo some new clothes,” Josh said happily.

“What’s wrong with my clothes?” Johann groused.

“Nothing, honey,” Loren said gently. “Josh loves buying people clothes. He lives for it. We all get clothes for every holiday.”

“We are the best dressed family in the neighborhood. We go to parties and everyone looks at us.” Josh pointed at Johann with his fork. “If you’re going to live with us, you’re going to have to fit in, or you’ll blow your cover.” He winked.

“Are you serious?” Johann asked.

“He’s serious,” Davis muttered. Then he sighed and smiled. “Let him run himself out, Johann. If nothing else, it’ll be fun watching him. It’ll be like watching a kid in a toy store.”

*******

Carlyn considered how long it had been since he’d been out shopping with Josh. It was possible it had been too long, because the only person who was less prepared for Josh’s high energy shopping spree than Johann, was him.

They headed out and the first place on Josh’s list was an eveningwear store. He didn’t trust the attendants to take Johann’s measurements alone. Josh handled the measuring tape, and just called out the numbers for the attendants to write down. Then Josh walked Johann through the store, holding up pieces of clothing against his body, and then piling pieces his liked into the waiting arms of the attendants.

While Josh tended to Johann, Loren, Carlyn, and Davis picked out some shirts and jacket. Nothing could be bought without Josh’s approval, but it gave them something to do while Josh got his first batch of possible purchases lined up.

After there were enough clothes for Johann to try on, they all huddled around a dressing room, to participate in Josh’s favorite part of buying clothes; the dress up. Johann tried on shirts, vests, pants, jackets, ties, tiepins, hats and shoes. Davis, Loren, and Carlyn gave commentary but Johann and Josh got the finally say.

Johann urged for downplayed looks, something that could be wore while in a fight. On his side he had Davis, who didn’t like violence, but disliked being flashy almost as much. Josh argued for bold colors and statement pieces. Loren subtly supported Josh. She liked people to look their best and believed Josh knew what he was doing when it came to fashion. Carlyn attempted to toe a careful line of agreeing with both sides, and suggest a smooth James Bond, secret-agent aesthetic. Something suave and sophisticated, but functional, like a well-made luxury car.

Josh seemed to the like idea of that. Johann, after all, was technically undercover. He was an agent of the Lucretian Legion, using his good standing with Carlyn to gain access to parts of alpha high-society that a radical omega-rights group wouldn’t be able to get near under normal circumstances. He took a few minutes look over the clothes he’d collected, before dragging Johann off for another walk through the floor.

“Should you have put that idea in his head?” Davis whispered, concern in his voice.

Carlyn chuckled nervously. “Well, I was trying to help,” he said. “But I know that look in his eye. He has inspiration and well …”

“He tends to go too far,” Loren finished with a smile.

“We’ll have to reel him in,” Carlyn said.

But there was no reeling Josh in. The eveningwear store was just the first stop. Johann also needed daywear for formal events. He had also needed casual wear. Josh also got him swimsuits and athletic wear. The athletic wear he almost took more care with that anything else.

“You’re going to use this more than anything else!” Josh insisted. “It has to be comfortable, but stylish. Maybe you’ll even get a walking or running group going in the neighborhood. That would be so great. Do you do any sports? Should be tennis wear? Or martial arts gear?!”

At this point, Johann looked at Carlyn, almost pleading for him to help. Carlyn merely shrugged and smiled. He’d been trying to calm Josh down for the last two stops and had given up halfway through the athletics store.

The madness didn’t stop when they got home either. Josh couldn’t leave anything in bags. He hurried the purchased up into Josh’s room to organized everything into his closet.

“You’ll wear your new stuff, right?” Josh asked as he hung the new clothes and mixed them with the old.”

“I will,” Johann said in a bored tone. “How will I know which stuff mine is when I leave?”

“It’s all yours, honey,” Loren said. “You’ll take it all with you.”

“I’ll buy you a bigger wardrobe for your apartment when you leave,” Josh said, folding silk ties over a hanger. “And we can go shopping for your apartment, too. Maybe buy some sheets for you bed.”

“Oh! And have dinner over your apartment,” Loren said.

“You had Haunting on the House on the Hill,” Davis murmured. “We could play. We could play that here.”

“Maybe.” Johann said.

“If everyone is okay with it,” Carlyn said, “I’m going to bed.”

“You don’t want a snack first?” Josh asked from behind a jacket. “I was going to have some ice cream if someone else had some with me.”

“I’ll have some,” Davis said. “I’ll get it started.”

“I’m going to bed, too,” Loren yawned. “Good night, darlings,” she said as she walked away.

“Johann?” Carlyn called.

“Yea, whatever. It’s my night with you.” Johann went into his room, snatched a pair of pajamas from the bed and shoved his way past Carlyn to get out the door into the hallway.

Carlyn sighed and shut his eyes. He assumed that eventually he and Johann would find some common ground and stop antagonizing each other, but for now he was getting really tired of being on edge in his own house. Following at a strolling pace to the bedroom, Carlyn took a few deep breaths. Things would probably settle down as they both got sleepy. Johann and Carlyn cared about getting a good night sleep too much to go on arguing all night. But getting dressed for bed had been a hassle every night they’d slept together.

As he stepped into the room, as if to prove his point, a pillow hit his face.

“Why, Johann?” Carlyn sighed.

“If you’re going to do it with your fucking harem, put everything away before I have to be in here!”

“This is my room, I’ll have things where I like,” Carlyn sighed. “If you don’t like it, we can sleep in your room.”

“Fuck no, you shitty fucking, alpha. It’s the one place I don’t have to smell you all over me.” Johann tossed all the toys and lubes in the nearby box and dropped the box on the floor.

“Thank you,” Carlyn said sarcastically. He pulled off his shirt and tossed it in a corner for him to pick up later, only to have another pillow hit him in the back of the head.

“Don’t leave your fucking clothes for someone else to pick up! Lazy, shit. Your harem isn’t a maid service!”

“I’m going to pick it up later!”

“Sure, you are…”

Carlyn growled, stalked over to the shirt, snatched it up from the floor, and walked to the bathroom to put and the rest of his clothes away in the hamper.

Finally dressed in his pajamas Carlyn walked around to his side of the bed and began braiding back his locks.

“How did you like today?” he asked, in an effort to be civil before bed.

“It was shitty,” Johann said, shooting him down.

“Well, you got a lot of new clothes.”

“That I didn’t need.”

“What about hanging out with Loren, Davis, and Josh? At least, you were surrounded by omegas today. Not like being at the Fangs base.”

Johann looked up at Carlyn. He dropped his hands from tying back his hair and stared at Carlyn with his deep, unyielding blue eyes. “Your harem is a group of spoiled, useless, alpha’s lap pets, insipidly content with being your playthings and your household staff.”

Carlyn stared at Johann for a moment before snarling. “If you ever,” he said slowly and clearly, “say something like that about my harem again, I will beat you bloody and throw you out on the street.”

Unafraid, Johann leaned in over the bed. “That’s the realest, most alpha thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“How dare you speak about them like that? You don’t know you a thing about any of them!”

“I know enough.”

“You don’t know anything! Ask them! Ask them what they know! Find out who they are! Just because they committed the unforgivable sin of being in harem doesn’t mean they’re brainless fools. You think every alpha is your enemy and every omega who doesn’t agree with that is too, but you’re wrong, and you’re too stupid and blind to see it!”

Johann climbed up onto the bed and quicker than Carlyn could react, raised his hand and slapped Carlyn across the face.

For a moment, Carlyn and Johann just stared at each other. Carlyn thought for a moment about hitting Johann back, but decided against it. Instead, he shook his head.

“Sometimes, I absolutely hate you,” Carlyn hissed.

“Good,” Johann growled with a dark smile. “Because the last thing I would ever want is for you to like me in any way.”

“You’re the worst. You’re miserable, and mean spirited, and stuck in your ways, and hateful.”

“So why don’t you throw me out?!”

“Because!” Carlyn barked. “Because,” he said in a calmer voice, “this is a hunt. I’ve smelled something on you, and I’m hunting down the source of the smell. It’s instinct. You don’t just give up when a hunt gets difficult.”

“Alpha instincts,” Johann growled. “God, I hate you. It will never give me more pleasure than the day I get to leave your presence forever.”

“When I get whatever it is I smell from this situation, I’ll gladly see you off. Now can we please go to bed?”

“Fine.”

“Good.”

They turned off the lights and got in bed together. Johann turned his back on Carlyn and Carlyn put his arm around him. Despite how much they had been fighting, lying together was physically comfortable. Carlyn found himself drifting off within minutes.

In the morning Johann was facing him, tucked into his chest with his arm wrapped around his torso. They were warm and comfortable. Carlyn woke up with his face buried in Johann’s hair. He had to use the bathroom, but he stayed still anyway.


	6. Chapter 6

“What did you do before you came here?” Josh asked. “Did you go to school or have a job you needed to quit?”

They were sitting down to dinner on a Friday evening, just the five of them. Johann had melted considerably since the fight over Carlyn’s harem. They could even ask him questions about himself now and he would answer them sincerely.

“I worked full time in the Legion,” Johann said. “I made deliveries, packages, messages, stuff like that.  I trained new recruits. I helped the base run. We couldn’t exactly hire a maid service, so all the cleaning was on us.”

“Goodness,” Loran said. “Could they stand to lose you?”

Johann chuckled. “I think this is a promotion. Undercover, behind enemy lines, procuring essential items.”

“Is the strike on the pharmaceutical lab going to happen soon?” Davis asked.

Carlyn chuckled nervously. “He’s not going to tell us that.”

“He’s not going to tell you that,” Josh countered. “He might tell us if we promise not to tell you.”

“Why?!” Carlyn whined. “I can keep a secret! I might even be able to help.”

“Help how?” Johann snapped.

“I don’t know yet,” Carlyn pouted. “You’d have to give me some details before I can figure out how I can help.”

“Get fucked, alpha trash,” Johann muttered almost casually.

Josh, Loren, and Davis chuckled, but politely, with their heads turned away from Carlyn. Carlyn frowned and kept pouting. After a moment Johann glanced at Carlyn.

“Most the people making the decisions at the pharma labs, and the politicians that decide what to with the drugs travel in your circles. Your mother’s name is on the same guest lists as these people. Keep your ear to the ground?”

“What I am looking for?” Carlyn asked.

“You’ll know when you hear it. It’ll be able about omega and it’ll make your stomach turn.”

“In this case,” Loren cut in, “no news is good news.”

“Agreed,” Davis nodded.

Carlyn looked at each of his omega, frowned, and hoped he didn’t find anything.

*******

A few more weeks passed without any more incidents. They had a more outings, movies lunches, dinners. To Carlyn’s mild surprise, Johann agreed to go out with the members of Carlyn’s harem individually and spend time with them. Sometimes, Carlyn would walk into a room suddenly, paying attention to something else, and find Johann with one or another of his harm, talking quietly and intensely. Johann, did, however refuse to go out alone with Carlyn.

He refused, that is, right up until Carlyn received an invitation to dinner that neither of them could turn down. It was unfortunate, but necessary for keeping up ruse of Johann being his mate. It had been twelve weeks already, after all.

“Now this evening you’re going to be sitting with my mother, sister and brothers. Normally you wouldn’t have to put up with them, but Mom wants to meet you.”

“She normally doesn’t have your omegas over, right?”

Johann was sitting the passenger's seat of Carlyn’s truck, in a silk dress shirt and a pair of slacks. His hair was done thanks to Josh, combed back with moose and held with pins to keep it off his forehead in a stylish pompadour that distracted Carlyn immensely. He had a frown on his face.

“It isn’t that I don’t bring them once in a while,” Carlyn mumbled. “Holidays and things. It’s more that … you’re not going to like this,” Carlyn warned. “Or her,” he added. “She doesn’t care for omegas. She has more omegas in her harem than I’ve ever been able to count, in part because she can’t stand to live with them. She keeps her omega in apartments in downtown. The only time she sees them is when she wants sex. There’s a separate living room for the omegas of her guests to socialize in so she doesn’t have to deal with them. Normally when I bring you over, if you consent to it, which I doubt you will, you’ll be in the omegas’ parlor.”

“I hate her.”

“I’m not fond of her either, if I was to be honest. But she fathered me, and I’m supposed to love her.”

“My father is an alpha and I hate him.”

Carlyn glanced at Johann and felt a small sense a of relief.

“Besides,” Johann mumbled, “I can’t speak for Loren, but I think, from what she’s told me, that she has reason to hate the alpha who fathered her, too.”

“What would you know about Loren’s parents?”

“I know enough,” Johann said in a softer mimic of what he’d once said.

For a while Carlyn said nothing. He was too busying thinking and driving to speak. But after a while, in a very quiet voice, he said, “Is having reason to hate someone enough to actually do it?”

“Of course, idiot. That’s what a reason is for.”

The drove along and lapsed into silence again. Carlyn was done speaking. However, after a moment, Johann said,

“Is everything okay?”

“Of course,” Carlyn lied.

They came to Karen Tracey’s mansion in silence and parked off the road in the semi-circle driveway. Carlyn cut the engine to the car, but didn’t get out, instead he sat in the car in silence for a while, staring into the darkness outside the car.

“Are we going to go in?” Johann asked.

“You ever have a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach?” Carlyn asked in return.

“The first night I spent in your bed. And the nights I spend with my pheromones out of control. I was convinced you were going to rape me and force me into your harem. I was so sure of it that I had given up on thinking anything else was going to happen. I was surprised each time I woke up fine, like I was offended you hadn’t.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Yea, but the point is, sometimes, no matter how terrible you think something is going to bed, no matter how sure you are about it, it just doesn’t end up as bad as you think it will.”

Carlyn laughed softly. “That’s sweet. Thank you.”

“Yea, whatever. Let’s get this over with.”

With nothing else to do, they both got out of the truck. Carlyn offered his arm to Johann, who ignored it and began to walk. Carlyn shrugged and kept pace with him to door where the knocked and waited.

After a moment the door opened. An alpha in a pair of reading glasses looked at them both before stepping aside and nodded them in.

“Hey, Sage,” Carlyn said as he crossed the threshold.

“Hello, Carlyn,” Sage replied. “This must Johann.”

“Hey,” Johann mumbled.

“Thrilled to be here, I see,” Sage said. “I understand. Carlyn must have warned you what Mom is like. I don’t bring my harem here.”

“Ever?” Johann asked.

“Except on holidays when my siblings’ harems are here to keep them company.” Sage shrugged, closed to the door, and walked away.

“Do all of your siblings feel that way about your mom?” Johann whispered.

“We know what she’s like,” Carlyn admitted. He put an arm over Johann’s shoulders and followed Sage into the living room.

In the living room was three alphas, all of a similar look, Lyric, Sage, and the middle child, Eden, all with the same brown eyes, deep black hair, and rich black skin. Lyric was reading a novel, as was Sage, while Eden was watching TV keeping track of a football game.

“Hey guys,” Carlyn said. “This is Johann.”

“So, this is your new omega,” Edan said, turned down the TV as he looked over Johann. “I like him, he’s more rough-and-tumble than your others. Made he’ll make you grow a dick.”

“Eden, shut up,” Lyric said. “Hello, Johann. Welcome to the family. I hope my baby brother is treating you right. Because if he’s not, I’ll beat him up for you.”

To Carlyn’s surprise, Johann laughed. “He’s nice,” he said. “A bit of a baby-”

“He’s always been like that,” Eden said with a laugh. “Come on and sit down, Johann. I’ll get you a beer.”

Amazing, Johann took Carlyn’s hand and walked them over the sofa where Eden was sitting and sat them down. Carlyn let Johann fall into conversation with Lyric and Eden while he turned to Sage.

“Where’s Mom?”

“On a phone call. Enjoy the peace while it lasts.”

Taking his brother’s advice, Carlyn decided to do just that. With an arm around Johann to keep himself grounded, Carlyn struck up a conversation with Eden about current events. The only unfortunate thing was that the stream of conversation lead to uncomfortable topics.

“I saw something on the news,” Eden said. His voice was even lower than usual. “There was a hit on Pfizer last week. Looked professional.”

“Yea,” Carlyn said. “I saw that.”

“The according the reports that stole millions of dollars of pheromone suppressants. They were dressed in uniforms and were coordinated with weapons and equipment.”

“Who do you think they are?” Carlyn asked.

“I was hoping you’d know. This has Fangs written all over it, or someone close to the Fangs. But what I can’t understand is what you’d want with pheromone suppressants.”

For a second Carlyn had the urge to be honest. He loved his brother and knew he’d understand the choices he’d made. But even if he was going to tell him, this wasn’t the time or place for honesty.

“The Fangs have nothing to with Pfizer,” Carlyn half-lied. “But I’ll admit, knocking off Big Pharma sounds like a treat.”

Eden laughed discretely. “You would say that,” he mumbled.

Before Carlyn could change the subject the door to the living room burst open and Karen Tracy came striding into the room, muttering audibly under her breath.

“Stupid bastards! I haven’t met a mag yet with any brains in their head.” She strode across the room, snatched the remove from Sage and turned off the TV. “Now let’s see this new one, Carlyn. I’ve had it with omega for the day and want to get this over with.”

“What happened, Mom?” Lyric asked as she sat forward on the sofa.

Karen answered while walking around the sofa to the back of the room to pour herself a whiskey. “That idiot little girl, Margret, decided for reasons I’ll never understand that it would be a good idea to use the credit card I gave her to go on a massive spending spree. She’s spent thousands, that stupid little breeding stock.”

“Maybe she,” Eden began, but he was cut off.

“Eden, do be a good boy a shut up.” She took a sip of whiskey between sentences. “Spoiled little brat. Let’s not pretend you’d know anything about keeping a proper harem with only two omegas. But maybe you’re the sane one, only keeping two of the dumb little fuckers around.” She refilled her glass and strolled back around the sofas towards the TV. “Carlyn, please. Can I just see this new one, so we can eat? He’ll be eating in the omega’s parlor. I can’t stand the smell of him at the moment; it’s making my headache worse.”

“Mom,” Carlyn said but trailed off. He wasn’t sure what to say or where to start.

“Carlyn, please don’t whine. Not tonight. Either do as I say or leave.” Karen put a hand on her hip and stared Carlyn down.

For a moment Carlyn hesitated, then he glanced at Johann who was keeping a carefully neutral face. It was impressive control, but Carlyn knew he shouldn’t have to listen to this abuse. Carlyn stood and offered his hand to Johann. Johann took it and a ghost of a smile almost broke through his neutral façade. They skirted their way past Eden and Carlyn delicately lead by around his body and planted him by the door. Then he turned and took a few back so he was face to face with Karen. He was just an inch shorter than her, but he gazed at her coolly.

“You know, you are a cold, heartless tyrant who knows neither affection nor compassion. And maybe, just maybe, if you didn’t treat your omegas like whores, dropping in when you want to fuck them senseless, then paying them to stay on out of your sight, they wouldn’t feel compelled to wring you for all you’re worth.”

Karen frowned for a moment, shifted from foot to foot, then in one quick motion, smashed her whiskey glass into the side of Carlyn’s face. Carlyn took single step back, blinked, and shook the whiskey and glass from his head. When he looked up Lyric was up and had her hand around Karen’s throat. Eden and Sage were just behind her, growling.

“Stop!” Carlyn rasped. “Just stop! It’s not worth it.”

Lyric looked at him, teeth bared, the let go of their mother.

Carlyn felt blood coming down the side of his face but smiled. “Thank you, Mother, for putting up with me until now. But goodbye. You’re a terrible person, and I’m not going to deal with it anymore.” Turning, Carlyn offered an arm to Johann, who took it, and they walked out of the living room. As they strolled down the hall, Carlyn could hear Lyric’s voice.

“How could you?!” Lyric said. “He’s your son. Your son!”

Carlyn only smiled and let them out of the house. “That was refreshing,” he said under his breath.

“I can tell,” Johann laughed. “Is your head okay?”

“I’ve got a bit of a headache. You mind driving?”

“That’s fine.”

They walked to the car but before they could get in, Lyric started calling them, running from behind.

“Wait! Guys! Wait up!”

“Lyr?” Carlyn said.

“Hey!” Lyric said. Behind her were Sage and Eden. “Carlyn, how’s your head?” She grabbed his head and looked at it. “You’re bleeding.”

“I’m fine, Lyr.”

“No, you’re not.” She delicately touched the cut, then began to wipe with her sleeve. “Let’s go to my place. We can get something to eat.”

“Sounds good,” Sage said. “I’m starving.”

“When are you not hungry?” Eden asked with a smile.

“You can’t drive like this,” Lyric muttered.

“I’m driving,” Johann said. He opened the door for Carlyn who gently pushed Lyric off him and slipped into the truck.”

They all piled into their cars. Carlyn got comfortable in the passenger seat. It was one of his favorite things to give up driving for the day and allow a member of his harem to drive him around so even with blood still trickling down the side of his head, he was content. Even in the dark Johann was a competent driver, following Carlyn’s siblings and instructions easily to get from Karen’s house to Lyric’s.

They all parked in the driveway and followed Lyric in as she called for some to get a first aid kit for Carlyn’s head. Once Carlyn was patched up, the group sat down in the living room and ordered take out.

Gloria and her new baby were the center of attention for Lyric’s mates and Johann. Carlyn wouldn’t have thought Johann would like babies, but that wasn’t the case.

“Do you like children?” Gloria asked Johann.

“I’m not really sure,” Johann said.

“You can have kids to carry on your family name though,” Sage said. “Why wouldn’t want to do that?”

“I’m just not sure I want to.”

“Here,” Gloria said. “Hold her.” She edged up to Johann and began to push her baby into her arms.

“What?” Johann mumbled.

“Here,” Gloria insisted. “Come on. This’ll show you. It’s all instinct. Just hold her like this. Yes. And support her head. Right. Your doing great. Perfect.”

Johann held the baby, looked down at her. She yawned and snuggled down into his arms. Johann seemed confused at first, as if he’d never seen such a thing. Then slowly, he began to melt, shoulders soften a bit.

“She’s lovely,” Johann said softly.

“Isn’t she?” Gloria said. “I hope she’s an omega. I want her to be a politician.”

“An omega politician?” Johann said in confusion. “But … there’s not …”

“I know! Imagine. An omega senator. An omega president! Wouldn’t it be wild? My girl. President!”

“And if she’s an alpha? Or a beta?” Johann asked.

“Well I still want her to be president. But I really want her to be first omega president. I want her to be a boy. So she could be the first male something or other. I would give my family to her.”

“To a boy?” Eden interrupted “To an alpha or beta boy?”

“Why not?” Gloria said. “I don’t care. She still my first born.”

“But the line would end with her,” Sage exclaimed.

“If she was a boy, she could give her name to the second born of her mate’s children. Easy.” Gloria nodded at her own answer.

“I never thought of that,” Carlyn muttered. “Makes sense.”

“Sure it does,” Gloria said. “The world is less complicated than we make it. Alpha mate with omega. Beta mate with omega. Omega mate with everyone. That’s biology. But everything else is just social rule and those can be changes. Hell, even the first stuff is social rules. We don’t live in caves any more. You don’t have to mate to make babies. I know an omega woman who got married to a beta woman!”

“Why?” Sage asked.

“Sex is good,” Gloria laughed. “And they have a good time together. There never been any alpha you thought ‘If only one of us was an omega, we’d make an amazing couple?’ Never once?”

“No!” Sage exclaimed.

“Well,” Eden mumbled. “Maybe once.”

“What?” Sage yelled.

“A classmate when I had just got my orientation. I thought he’d be an omega he was so tiny and cute but … he was an alpha. He just sprung up over one summer.” Eden looked at Gloria. “He was still so gorgeous though. If he’d ever asked me out … I might have so ‘to hell with it’ and gone out with him.”

“Why didn’t you ask him out?” Carlyn asked.

“Would you ask another alpha out?” Eden countered.

Carlyn smiled sheepishly. “No. I’d be too embarrassed. Too worried about what people would say.”

“There you go,” Gloria said. “I love Lyric. And I love you girls,” she said to her harem-sisters. “I love my life. But this is life I choose. I firmly believe people should also get to choose something different. Is that so wrong?”

“I guess not,” Sage muttered. “I mean, Mom believes in the system, and look what kind of person it makes her.”

The room nodded in agreement.

*******

They left Lyric’s house later than they expected. Carlyn was fairly drunk by the time they left and climbed into the passenger seat for a nap. Johann, who was the sober one of the two, took the wheel. He put in the address for Carlyn’s house and started off along the darkened road.

Carlyn watched things appear and disappear in and out of the light of the head lights. It was very much like being in a wonderland type dream state where things existed and didn’t exist at the same time. He wasn’t even sure that he was awake most of the time. That was why he hadn’t been sure he heard anything when Johann first started talking.

“Carlyn?” Johann muttered.

Drifting in and out of sleep, drunk, injured, Carlyn didn’t respond.

“I’m sorry,” Johann went on. “I’m sorry for what I said about your harem. I’m sorry for the things I thought about you. I was wrong. You’re a privileged idiot, but you’re not a bad person and your harem aren’t stupid. I assumed no love could ever exist between alphas and omegas, but I was wrong.”

Carlyn let the words soak in, then shifted in his seat and reached over and took Johann’s hand off the steering wheel. He brought Johann’s hand to his mouth and kissed it.

“You’re good,” Carlyn muttered sleepily. “You’re so good, Johann.” Then he let go of his hand and slumped back in his seat. “You’re great.”


	7. Chapter 7

Johann parked in the garage as Carlyn attempted to rouse himself from his half dose. Carlyn didn’t fully remember the conversation from earlier but he felt somehow lighthearted. He hadn’t managed to wake up completely when the passenger side door opened, and Johann reached over and unhooked his seatbelt.

“Hey,” Carlyn muttered sleepily, but took sharp breath in when Johann swept his legs out of the car and hauled him out of the passenger’s seat. Carlyn immediately went to take his weight off Johann, but Johann held him with one arm, while shutting the door with another. His rock-solid form kept Carlyn glued to him as they walked into the house.

“Loren?!” Johann shouted. “Josh?! Davis?! Are you guys up?!”

“We’re in the living room!” Loren called back. “Is everything okay?”

“Fine!” Johann shouted back. “Carlyn’s dick mother hit him with a glass though and he’s several shades in the breeze on really good wine. Help me get him in bed?”

“Coming!”

Loren appeared at the door, sleeves rolled up, she took Carlyn’s other side and together she and Johann began to walk Carlyn upstairs. She didn’t have the brute strength of Johann but still Carlyn felt more he was being carried than like he was walking, as they headed up the stairs and into his bedroom.

“Guys, I’m fine,” Carlyn protested as Loren fussed over his head.

“That alpha hit you!” Loren hissed. “Her own child.”

“It’s fine,” Carlyn assured her.

“It’s not,” Johann said, tossing some pajamas at Carlyn. “But you looked cool shaking it off. And telling her off.”

“He told old Karen off?!” Josh said, entering the room with some blankets and pillows in his arms.

“Yea,” Johann said with a smile. “Told her she was a mean, heartless, tyrant, who knew neither love nor compassion and treated her harem like whores.”

“Oh my god,” Davis whispered. He had a tray of snacks which he put on the foot of the bed. “I would have paid to see that. What was the look on her face?”

“Cold,” Carlyn said. “Very cold. She didn’t even blink. Just smashed her whiskey glass against my head. You should have seen Lyric. She flipped. Even Eden was mad. They all left. We went to Lyric’s house for dinner.”

“Pizza and tacos,” Johann cut in.

“Nothing homemade?” Loren complained as she helped Carlyn out of his blood-stained shirt.

“No one wanted to cook,” Carlyn said with smile.

Loren huffed and continued to help Carlyn change. Once Carlyn was in his pajamas, he was shoved to the center of his bed with his teddy bear behind him to prop him up. Johann and Loren sat on one side of him, and Divas and Josh sat on the other side and started up the movie that had been on downstairs.

“Should we restart it?” Davis asked.

“No,” Carlyn yawned. “I’ll probably be asleep soon.” He got comfortable but grabbed a soda off the tray that had been placed on his lap. Carlyn noticed Johann slump into the bed and allow Loren to take his hand. He smiled behind his glass and trained his eyes on the TV.

 

*******

Karen’s whiskey glass wasn’t the last injury Carlyn ended up with up with that week. During what was supposed to be a routine visit to one of their drug dens, the alpha in charge, who’d never liked Carlyn anyway, decided to stick a knife in his side when they were alone. Carlyn had a been understandably annoyed by the attack. He pulled out the knife for range of movement and beaten the other alpha viciously. When the other alpha stopped moving, Carlyn looked up to find he wasn’t alone.

Raji had come into the room sometime while Carlyn was distracted. He was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest, only frowning slightly.

“Your side is bleeding,” Raji said.

“He stabbed me,” Carlyn responded, pressing a hand to his side. Now that he was coming off the adrenaline of the beat down, he felt how much it hurt. Glancing down he found the knife. He was small, tiny and long like an oversized needle. “With this.” Carlyn nudged the knife with his boot.

Raji looked at the knife, then huffed. “Medieval stiletto knife. Italian. Good make. Made for puncturing. He was probably going for your liver.”

While Raji talked, Carlyn used his free hand to get the number of his doctor up on his phone. “Well I was able to beat the shit out of him, so I think he missed.”

“Your liver is on the other side and several inches higher.”

“He always was a bad shot.”

Carlyn waited to tell his harem about being attacked until Raji took him home. He didn’t need Davis and Josh fussing over him at the medical center and didn’t need Loren and Johann threatening anyone. He was planning on sneaking in and getting settled in bed before saying anything, but when he got home, he found Johann leading the other through some sort of workout in the backyard.

“The fuck is this?” Raji whispered.

“No clue,” Carlyn whispered back, then straighten up and walked out onto the patio. “Guys!” he called. “Where are you doing?”

Loren, like the others, was dress in brand new workout clothes that were surely bought on the insistence of Josh. The colors were surely Johann’s choice though. They were too muted to have been picked out by Josh. Loren glanced at Carlyn in her new outfit and smiled.

“Johann is going to start leading omega self-defense class at the community center. We’re testing it out to make sure it’s not too intense.”

“That’s a good idea,” Carlyn chuckled.

“What happened to you?” Josh asked. “Your shirt is all bloody.”

“What?!” Loren dropped her pose and turned around. “What happened?!”

“I got a little stabbed,” Carlyn admitted.

“What?!” every member of Carlyn’s harem said at once.

“Who did it?” Loren hissed.

“Doesn’t matter, Loren,” Raji said calmly. “He’s in pieces. Becka’s getting rid of the pieces now. He was a Pru loyalist, anyhow and it’s better we flush the last of them out.”

Loren frowned and stalked across the lawn and up to the patio. She pushed Carlyn’s arm away from his side and yanked up his shirt to look at the left side of his torso.

“How bad is it?” she asked.

“About a three-inch-deep stab wound,” Carlyn said. “But very narrow. He was aiming to puncture my liver like some master assassin. He missed by a mile.”

“By several miles,” Raji said. “He’ll live.” He put his hand on Carlyn’s shoulder in a rare show of physical affection. “I’ll visit soon,” he mumbled before turning to leave.

“Bye, Raj!” Carlyn called, then walked over to the nearest deck chair and dropped into it with a sigh.

Carlyn’s harem sat at the table around him, frowning and looking worried. Johann was the first to speak.

“Who’s Pru?” he asked. “And why would there be loyalists to her?”

“Pru ran the Fangs before me,” Carlyn said. “She older, very powerful, very ruthless. Lyric was her right-hand woman. But Lyric double crossed her, and set her up to fall, and set me up to take her place. We wiped out most of Pru’s loyalist when I took over, and everyone else fell in line. Pru made enemies within her ranks. She was hard on people and seemed to hate men. There were people who were glad to see her go. But there are still some who like to see me dead for what happened.”

Johann looked at Carlyn from across the table and frowned. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” Carlyn said. “What about the Legion? Any news from them since the Pfizer hit?”

“The self-defense group is part of it,” Josh said. “A softer look, community outreach. Ears and eyes in the right places.”

“Smart,” Carlyn said. “A good way to avoid attention is make sure those who might have information on you have no reason to say anything.”

“I’m aware,” Johann said. “The Fangs donate to charity, food, baby stuff, clothes. Members give rent money to people about to kicked out. We had people ask around. You’re like Santa Claus. I’m surprised I’ve never heard of Pru.”

“I scrubbed her from every record I could get ahold of when I took over,” Carlyn explained. “I wanted to erase her from existence.”

“Well, it worked. People out there don’t even say her name. I’ll tell the Legion to dig a bit.”

“They dig, the Fangs will hear about it,” Carlyn said.

“I thought the Fang and the Legion were allies,” Davis said.

“I’m just saying, if the Legion wants to keep themselves out of sight, they should be aware anyone asking after Pru will be a target.”

“I understand,” Johann said. Then he sighed. “Don’t you think you should get in bed and rest?”

“Agreed!” Loren said.

“Me too,” Josh said, looking up from his phone. “I’ll order you some new pajamas for your stay at home while you recover. And some nice slippers.”

“Oh,” Davis said. “That’s nice. Maybe I’ll order you a book to read while your recovering.”

“And you have to exercise a little to keep your muscles from atrophying,” Johann added.

“All that is besides the point,” Loren said. “Sleep and food are most important. Come on!” She hauled him up and started pulling him towards the door. Carlyn noticed that she gotten stronger lately.

 

*******

A couple of days lounging around the house being looked after was exactly what the doctor called for after being stabbed in the side. Thanks to his harem he was getting plenty of rest, eating well, reading good books in comfortable clothes, and keeping his strength up with low intensity calisthenics. He seemed to heal even faster than normal and felt clear headed and strong. So much so that he headed out to his sister’s for drink’s one evening and came back rather drunk.

When he finally made it home, the house was quiet, and he snuck up to his room making as little noise as he could. In his own room, Carlyn shut the door silently, gave his bear a pat on the head, and slipped into bed. It was Johann’s night with him, and Carlyn could smell him even over the alcohol clouding his head. He slipped his hand under Carlyn’s shirt to touch the soft skin just above the waistband of Johann’s sweatpants as he laid down. Head on the pillows he breathed in Johann’s scent deeply and hummed.

“I’m only going to say this once,” came Johann’s calm, sleepy voice. “Get off me.”

The words, however calm, gently knocked Carlyn awake. He withdrew from Johann and took a breath. “I’m … so sorry.”

Johann turned over and tucked one arm under his head. He gazed at Carlyn in the dark, his features obscured and mysterious. “Do you want to visit one of the others for a few hours and come back?”

“No!” Carlyn said firmly. “It’s your night. I won’t lie here smelling like someone else. Even one of your harem-siblings. I didn’t mean to … do that.”

Johann hand had sneaked out and his fingers were just barely tracing over the inside of Carlyn’s wrist. “I understand. I do. You have … urges. We all do. But I can’t … we can’t …”

“I get that. You have real reservations about any personal relationship you might have with me. I’ve learned a lot. And I understand and respect your position. I never meant to imply I wanted to change your mind.”

A ghost of a smile lifted the side of Johann’s mouth and Carlyn took a chance to move closer. Carlyn put his hand on Johann’s side, on top of his night shirt, and relaxed.

“Thank you,” Johann said softly.

“Hm? For what?”

“For not disappointing me.”


	8. Chapter 8

It was a wonderfully bright and sunny day with the streets surrounding the capital full of people. Carlyn had never been to a protest before, but Johann had said he was going so the rest of house had decided to go with him. There were thousands of people, mostly omegas, protesting the confirmation of supreme court justice Britney O’Connor. Justice O’Connor had been excused of raping an omega in high school. There had even been a Senate hearing about it. But never-the-less she’d been confirmed, as the omega had never filed a police report about the incident and had been painted as lair.

People were in the streets, saying that this was injustice and would just be swept under the rug. Carlyn listened to the chants, read the signs, saw the angry, hurt faces, counted the betas and alpha in the crowds. It was strange to be around so many people who felt so strongly about the world. It was like stepping into Johann’s world suddenly and it was jarring.

“It’s this exciting?” Davis said into Carlyn’s ear. “This is democracy in action!”

Carlyn blinked the sun out of his eyes and smiled. He didn’t quite share the feeling, but he was living in the moment.

They marched on the capital building, then surrounded it and chanted. People came around and passed out water. Speeches were made by passionate speakers. The police milled around, which made Carlyn nervous on principle, but the other protesters didn’t seem to love them either, for their own reasons. Carlyn watched and made mental notes.

By the time the day was over he was exhausted and sore. Loren, Davis and Josh got into her car, but as Carlyn opened the door to his truck for Johann, Johann stopped and looked at him.

“I think I’ll stay,” Johann said.

“Stay? Why?” Carlyn asked.

“There’s rumors. An attack on the community center. I want to stay and take care of it.”

“Loren won’t like that.”

“Loren will like her center being smashed even less. Just cover for me.”

Carlyn thought for a moment, then said. “Get in. We’ll go together. We’ll get Raji, Becka, and Adison to help.”

Huffing, Johann nodded. “Fine.”

They headed to the house, got cleaned up from the day, then said they were headed out to the Fangs compound for a while.

It was not just Carlyn and his underbosses that came with Johann to the community center. The Fangs loved Johann, and when they heard he had mission for him, Carlyn had to step in to keep the entire base from turning up at the community center. Instead, he let each of his underbosses pick two people to bring with them for backup and the team of eleven headed out together. However, even then they were alone.

There were twelve other people waiting in front of the community center. Carlyn began tense, but Johann sped up his walking and met the others in front of the doors. Johann and the others exchanged a few words, before Johann turned around and waved the Fangs over.

“Carlyn, this is Felix, our Legion Legate.” Johann nodded towards the thick omega in the front of the group.

He had angry grey eyes, and short cropped black hair. He, and the others in the group, were dressed the same black tactical outfits the Lucretian Legion had on during the strike on the Fang’s base.

“Legion Legate?” Carlyn repeated.

“Commanding officer of a single legion,” Felix said.

“Second in line for Consul,” another Legion member said. A beta, bookish but strong, much like Adison. Carlyn decided to be wary of her. “The Consul leads the Lucretian Legion world-wide.”

There was a murmur of awe from behind Carlyn. Carlyn pressed his back teeth together to keep his face as neutral as possible. He was suddenly aware he was talking to someone higher up in their field than he was in his.

“Below the Consul are her Imperial Legates,” the beta went on, “the Commanders of every Legion in each country. Leading each individual Legion in an area is the Legion Legate, which for this area is Felix. I am Felix’s Broad Band Tribute.”

“My Second in Command,” Felix explained. “Taylor. And you’re Carlyn Tracy, head of the Fangs, an area gang monopolizing the criminal underground. No one would suspect a wealthy socialite and author to be the ringleader of a drug cartel and weapons ring.”

“I’ve had an interesting life,” Carlyn shrugged.

“I’m sure. You’ve come to protect your harem mate’s territory?”

“If you want to put that way.”

Felix nodded. He opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could, he stopped and turned his attention out towards the road lead to the center. Carlyn followed his gaze and found a group of about two dozen coming up the road with torches in their hands.

They were alphas; that much Carlyn could tell from a distance. They smelled like anger and violence, the same smell that clung to Karen and Jackson. Carlyn wondered if that smell hung off him as well. The group marched up them without speaking. They were less organized than the Lacertian Legion in mismatched t-shirts, cargo pants, and sneakers. But they all looked furious.

“Get out of the way!” one the alpha shouted.

“Turn around and leave,” Felix warned. “You’re not welcomed here.”

The torched-baring group chuckled darkly.

“Look at the meg,” the same alpha snarled. “Thinks he can give orders. Where’s your alpha, meg?”

“Get out of here,” Felix said again. “If you stay, there’ll be trouble.”

The alpha smirked and turned his attention to Carlyn. “He belong to you? You let him talk to people like that?”

Carlyn frowned but kept his answered measure. He was aware of how whatever he said could be twisted. “He doesn’t belong to anyone and talks the way he wants. Now do as he says before somebody kicks your teeth in.”

The alpha frowned, and the rest of his group began to growl. “There’s only one thing worse than a meg that doesn’t know their place. An alpha that put those kinds of backwards idea into a meg’s head. Alpha like you should be strung up.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Carlyn said. “I’d love to crack your head open. It’d make the world a better place.”

“Don’t you even see how wrong you are?!” the alpha ringleader shouted. “Omegas were made to serve alphas. It’s their purpose! Giving them all this power and independence just confuses them! Think about it. All trouble we have now-a-days. Unemployment. Suicide rates. Rape. Homelessness. Not to mention record unhappiness for omega themselves. Things used to be good. Quiet. Ordered. Because everyone knew their PLACE!”

Carlyn stared at man for a moment and said the first thing that came to his mind, “You’re insane. Incompetent and insane.”

The alpha ringleader took a moment as well to soak in Carlyn’s words, and then reacted. He roared and swung his torch overhanded right at Carlyn.

Reacting without thinking, Carlyn ducked back and right, but flames still caught his shoulder and the locks on that side of him. As his eyes moved from the torch to his burning body, he saw Johann beginning to move. Everything was in slow motion. The smell of burning clothes and hair joined the acidic smell of hate in the air. Some part of Carlyn was worried about how he’d land, because he had one foot off the ground and it seemed like he’d been moving backwards from the torch for several minutes.

Then his foot hit the ground and time started moving at the right speed again.

Raji was at his side, beating out the flames dancing at Carlyn’s shoulder, Becka charged forward with the rest of the Fangs at her side. Johann had already hit the alpha ringleader’s wrist, twisted the torch out of his grip and tossed it aside, before spinning on the spot hitting the ringleader in the throat with his elbow and smashing him in the face with the heel of his hand. The flames were out in about the same time it took that to happen and Raji slapped Carlyn on the back before rushing into the fray.

Carlyn had a choice. Follow Raji, or circle around the back. He wanted to keep near Johann, but he knew Johann could take care of himself. Carlyn took a hard turn and circled around the back of the torchbearers.

A swift kick to the back of the knees took the torchbearer farthest to back down. When he dropped Carlyn rained punches down on him, until he was reasonably sure he wasn’t getting up. Then he launched forward, throwing punches.

The fight didn’t last long. The torchbearers were angry, but the Lucretian Legion and the Fangs made it their business to fight well. Angry punks with chips on their shoulders didn’t stand a chance. Within minutes, it was over. The Legion and the Fangs didn’t escape unscathed, but they’d seen worse. The torchbearers left fast, limping, and torch-less.

“Filthy bastards,” Felix growled. Then turned to Carlyn. “Take your people home. We’ve got patrols in the area. We’ll keep the center safe for you.”

“I can’t let you patrol our turf alone,” Carlyn insisted, despite wanting to go home and have a nap.

Felix turned on his heel and walked away, but the other members of the Legion stayed put, watching them.

“Are we going to let them do what they want?” Becka asked in Carlyn’s ear.

“We’re going to work together,” Carlyn answered in a low voice.

In a few moments, Felix came back with a small box. “Here. The leaders of each group should wear one of these on the inside left panel of their jackets.” He popped opened the box to reveal several small pins with the Lucretian Legion crest on it.

“How will you know they’re wearing them,” Carlyn asked as he took the box.

“We’ll know,” Felix answered.

Then he turned and headed away, down the road towards where the beaten torchbearers had fled. The rest of fighters went with him, including a tiny, but muscular omega girl. Carlyn noticed suddenly that she was holding Johann’s hand and was reluctant to let it go. When she finally did, their fingers trailed for one last second before she turned and caught up with her group.

Carlyn had questions. Who was the girl? What was she to Johann? How long had they known each other? In the several months Johann had been staying with them, he’d never once invited anyone over. Carlyn had assumed it was because he was deeply entwined in the Legion and maybe had no associations outside them that was safe to bring around, but now he questioned that. Maybe he simply didn’t want to share his personal life with them. With Carlyn.

But that was a question for another time.

He turned and had the group with him take a badge each.

“Go back to base. Get a team of four people and spread out. Keep in touch.” Carlyn offered Johann a badge but Johann shook his head, so he closed the box and tucked it under his arm. “I have a bad feeling about tonight,” Carlyn said.

The group split up. Raji, Becka, and Adison, and the others went back to the Fangs base to get more people. Carlyn took Johann to head home and tell Loren, Davis, and Josh where they were likely to be for the rest of the night.

As Carlyn sat with his harem in his kitchen, explaining the issue, his phone rang. It was Becka.

“What’s up Becks?” Carlyn said tiredly.

_“Carlyn. There’s trouble. We need more people.”_

“What sort of trouble?”

_“There are riots in some neighborhoods. In suburbs. In Adison’s neighborhood. She went home to check on Collin. Some of those torch guy had broken in. They were … They had raped him. They have lists! Lists of omegas not in an alpha’s harem. Single ones, ones in beta marriages. They’re dragging them from their homes and raping them. They’re killing betas! And any alpha that tries to stop them. Their burning down houses!”_

“Fuck,” Carlyn said. He was already standing, the urgency of the moment washing away the tiredness he had felt.

Johann was at his side, nudging him. “We have to get out there,” he whispered.

“No,” Loren said softly.

Carlyn looked at her. She was on verge of tears. Josh was standing next to her, frozen with a terrified look on his face. Davis didn’t look scared. He looked like he had shut down.

“Please don’t go out there,” Loren said.

“We have to go,” Johanna said. “I’m in the Legion. He’s the head of the Fangs. We have to.” He rushed up to her and hugged her. “Stay inside. Keep the doors locked. Stay away from the windows. Keep a charge cell phone near you and packed back in the car, just in case. It is safest for here. And if you have to leave, go to Lyric’s.”

Carlyn had to clear his throat to find his voice but nodded. “He’s right. You’re safe here. But we have to go.”

Tears began running down Loren’s cheeks, but she was nodding.

“Keep Josh and Davis safe for us?” Carlyn asked.

Loren nodded.

“We’ll be back,” Johann assured her. “Soon.” Then Johann turned to Carlyn. “We have to go.”

In the car Johann called his bosses, the first time he’d done so in Carlyn’s presence. Everything Becka said was true and it was spreading fast. They pulled into base to find it filled with people. Omegas Carlyn had never seen before were milling around, scared and clinging to members of the Fangs, especially betas. Some were shaking or crying. Some were visibly injured.

“Do we have doctors on the way?!” Carlyn shouted as he surveyed the chaos.

“They’re on way!” Adison said as she walked down the steps. “We don’t have any sort of supplies for this.”

“Adi?” Carlyn said. “Aren’t you … Where’s your husband?”

“Locked in my office, having a mental breakdown from being gang raped. There’s nothing I do for him right now.”

“You could be with him.” Carlyn suggested.

“You need me. The Fangs need me. This situation needs me. And I need to get him a doctor!” She was screaming by the end of her explanation, but then calmed down. “I’ve got him in my headset.” She lifted the headset to her personal phone from her neck. “You still there, babe?”

There was a paused of a few seconds, then Adison nodded.

“He’s still waiting. He wants a doctor and to go to sleep. Will they be able to do rape kits on all these people?”

Carlyn shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Adison took a breath and sighed. “I need to know what we need. Call my work phone if you need to reach me. I will not pick up my personal line.”

“Right. Try to pry some people from their mates. We need fighters out there. Put this place on lockdown. Guards on the doors. Authorized entry only so people feel safe.”

“Got it,” Adison said and trotted down the steps and away into the chaos in the yard.

Before Carlyn to turned to track her leaving, Johann grabbed his arm and began leading him inside. With Adison recruiting, Carlyn approving recruits and Johann organizing recruits into units, they turned out several more teams to go into rioting areas and bring down the violence. Carlyn and Johann co-lead a team with double the number of people.

It was a long night. And an even longer next day. In total it took three days to get things back under control. Whole neighborhoods were wiped out, burnt to the ground. Alpha supremacists tagged the ruined property with slogans promoting alpha rule and omega submission. Anyone who opposed them were killed, but omegas they took a special delight in dragging out into the open and assaulting.

It wasn’t easy getting the omegas out of harm’s way. Most of them fought anyone that touched them, especially if they smelled an alpha, but the Lucretian Legion had a way of bundling them up and getting them to safety without much fuss. There was something about the way they expertly handled a panicking omega blindly lashing out that impressed and terrified Carlyn.

During a short break in the fighting, early on the third day, Carlyn fought him sitting next to Taylor, sipped some water with her.

“You have omegas,” she said suddenly.

“Um … yes. Four. Three, not counting-”

“Johann. Yes. Four. How do the others feel about this?”

“Terrified. They didn’t want us to go.”

“Naturally.”

“Do you have a husband?” Carlyn dared to ask.

“No,” Taylor said absently. However, her eyes wandered. And when Carlyn followed them, he found Felix, pouring over maps and making plans.

“Oh,” he said. Then he blinked and sometime between closing his eyes and opening them again, he’d found Johann, sitting with the omega girl from before, talking softly. “I get that.”

Felix was many things, intense, driven, intelligent, but romance-oriented wasn’t one of his qualities. Maybe the omegas of the Lucretian Legion simply weren’t interested in that. Maybe they were devoted wholeheartedly to their cause.


	9. Chapter 9

When the smoke finally settled, and fires died down, Felix called for a retreat for the Lucretian Legion. He didn’t want too many of his people there when the legal first responders finally swept into the riot areas. Carlyn decided to do the same, leaving behind only headful of Fangs members, not tattooed with the gang symbol, to help clean up and to keep Carlyn informed of the situation. Those who had been where the fighting was thickest where dismissed, told to go home and get some rest.

Felix offered to take Carlyn back to his base or to his home, but Carlyn declined.

“We can talk when things calm down,” Carlyn said. “I’ll have you over for dinner.”

“That’s nice of you,” Felix said. Then he leaned up towards Carlyn’s ear and whispered, “The badges have a switch under the omega symbol to turn off the tracker.” He pulled back and smiled a tight, humorless smile. Carlyn looked into his sharp, cold, grey eyes, and then watched him turn and walk away with his group.

Standing in the street, surrounded by the leftovers of three days of violence and chaos, Carlyn just felt tired. He turned his head when he felt someone take his arm. It was Johann.

“Come on. We’ve been here forever.”

“I need to get back to base,” Carlyn said robotically.

“You should sleep,” Johann said.

“You think your boss is leaving to sleep?” Carlyn pointed out. “I’ll shower at the base. And eat something. But I need to be awake.”

Johann frowned. “I’m going home,” he said firmly.

“Good. I want you to go home.”

 

*******

The car ride back to the house was silent. Johann was clearly mad and had withdrawn into himself because of it. Carlyn wanted to appease him, but he had work to do. He couldn’t afford to rest up at home with his harem while the fires were still being put out. He pulled up in front of the house and Johann took of his seatbelt and opened the door.

“I’ll tell them where you went,” Johann said bitterly, then slammed the door shut behind him.

Sighing, Carlyn cut the engine and left the car. “I was going to go in.”

“Why bother?” Johann said as he entered the house. He didn’t look back.

It was clear that Johann was furious. This was the last thing Carlyn needed. He’d thought after all this time, after fighting side-by-side, that they were finally on good terms, but it seemed Carlyn had crossed a line again. Nevertheless, he went up into the house after Johann.

Inside Carlyn’s harem was in the downstairs hallway, hugging fiercely, the smell of tears in the air.

“Carlyn!” Josh said and broke from the group and rush up to him.

Carlyn caught Josh in his arm and held him, then opened on arm to receive Davis and Loren.

“We were worried,” Davis said.

“Are you okay?” Loren asked.

“I’m fine,” Carlyn replied. “I’m going to run the cleanup efforts from the base.”

“You’re leaving?!” Loren cried. “You can’t!”

“You just got home!” Josh exclaimed.

“I need to oversee this. Felix is probably already started on his end.”

“Who’s Felix?” Davis asked.

“The Legate Legion of the Lucretian Legion. I met him. And his second-in-command.” Carlyn revealed inside of his jacket so they could see the badge pinned to left side.

His harem leaned in to see the badge, frowning, but calming.

“I can’t let him think that this is his turf,” Carlyn said.

Loren stood up straight and sighed. “I guess you’re right,” she said. “It’s business. Can you check on the community center?”

“Ah, right. We had some people guarding it, but when the riots started …”

“I understand,” Loren said. “And I understand you have to go.” She kissed him on the side of his mouth, and then looked over her shoulder. “Johann, honey, are you going too?”

“No,” Johann said softly, clearly still angry.

“Well at least there’s that,” Davis murmured. He seemed to have gotten over his initial shock. “Let’s draw you a bath, Jo.” Davis gave Carlyn a quick kiss on the check, then hurried away, taking Johann’s hand and leading him upstairs.

“They’re mad,” Carlyn sighed.

“They’ll get over it,” Josh muttered. “I mean, who would be if stayed here during this? I know you’re a gang leader but you’re just not that type of gang leader. You have standing in the community. People depend on you.”

Putting an arm around Loren and Josh, Carlyn sighed. “Make sure they don’t hate me too much.”

“We’ll do our best,” Loren said. “Come back in one piece.”

“I will."

 

*******

The cleanup took ages. Carlyn arrived at the Fang’s base to find it full of omega, doctors, Fangs members all on top of one another. The doctors were trying to match victims of the riots with family or mates before they were taken to hospitals or private care. Luckily someone, Carlyn guested it was Adison, or Raji if he was at the base, had thought to post guards to the doctors from calling the police. So, with the gang overseeing them, the doctors were slowly keeping a trickle of injured omega going out of the base. Unfortunately, that left a lot of angry beta who were used to violence with time on their hands standing around. Carlyn decided to make use of that rage and keep them busy.

But before he could send them out, he needed a list of projects for them to work on.

Carlyn made his way to his office and sat down at his desk. He sighed and had barely let the exhaustion drag him lower in his seat when Adison walked in.

“Do you have any idea how many single and beta-married omegas we have working for us outside the main base?” Adison snapped.

“Where you’re husband?” Carlyn groaned as he straightened up.

As Adison walked in, Carlyn saw Collin walk in after her. He was dressed much like a member of the Lucretian Legion, however less like a hardened solider and more like a new recruit. He wore a t-shirt and jeans in black with light, fingerless tactical gloves. Carlyn paused and frowned a little.

“It makes him feel safer,” Adison said with an edge to her voice. “The doctors are from them. The guards standing over them are just to make people feel better.”

“They certainly know their PR,” Carlyn muttered.

“This is their thing, Carlyn,” Adison hissed. “If it was Loren. Or Johann.”

Carlyn put up his head. “I get it,” he said. “I’m just tired. How hard did we get hit?”

“Harder than I expected!” Adison said. “I thought we were mostly alphas, but I was a long way off. We have alpha on bases, running things, doing physical work …” She trailed off and shifted. An unusual thing for Adison to do.

“In leadership positions,” Carlyn guessed. “But omegas go the leg work. Smuggling, stealing, anything to do with handling the products where they can get caught by police.”

“Yea,” Adison admitted.

“We’ve gotta tighten shit up around here,” Carlyn said. “How many of our omegas are out of commission?”

“About half. I’d say about two fifths of our ground force.”

“Omegas make up, what?” He closed his eyes and thought. “Eighty percent of our network?” Carlyn asked in disbelief.

“Not of the muscle, if that helps,” Adison said. “But we are severely compromised. They work in the restaurants we use as covers, the taxis, the massage parlors, cleanup crews, nicely placed secretaries placing and losing the appropriate paperwork.”

“Stop. Please, stop.” Carlyn put up a hand. “Those riots couldn’t have been just group think. There was an underlying current.”

“The Pride,” Collins said suddenly.

“The who?” Carlyn asked.

“The Pride,” Collin repeated. “An alpha-supremacy group. Mostly a bunch of pent-up alphas without harems angry at omega for ignoring them, and angry at married beta for taking what’s theirs or some nonsense. They were just … internet jerks. But then they started showing up to places in real life. In groups. Hurting people. The Legion has them marked.”

“What the fuck?” Carlyn whispered. “Track them down,” he said in stronger voice. “They want to be a gang? Welcome to a turf war. I want them burnt to ground!”

“Gladly,” Adison said. “I’ll have finished reports in an hour.” Then she turned and marched out of the door, Collin on her heels.

 

*******

An hour came and went faster than Carlyn would have liked. Too few of the omega made it out of the base, too little of chaos was under control.

Adison came back with Collin and Carlyn notice had was holding all her paperwork. Maybe he wanted to be involved. That was new, because while was aware of what Adison did, he had always stayed as far away from it as possible before.

Collin even looked like a different person. Angrier, more on edge. Johann would have liked to say he’d never seen that look before, but he had. On Johann’s face, on Felix’s face, once on Loren’s face when she thought he wasn’t looking. Was this what Johann had been trying to tell him about that first night together. What he’d been blind to? What this what every omega’s life boiled down to?

“What have you guys got?” Carlyn asked, assuming Collin was like Johann, a Lucretian Legion liaison member of the Fangs.

“Two things first,” Adison said.

“The badges have a tracker in them,” Collin explained.

Carlyn blinked and nodded. “Right. Yes. Felix said so. With everything it just slipped my mind. You can turn it off with a switch hidden somewhere on it.”

“Under the omega symbol,” Collin said. “And there’s a distress button. If you push the swords together, they can be removed. Remove one and a distress signal goes out. Remove both and it start audio recording, assuming that … well, that no one going to get to you in time.”

“Jeez, lovely,” Carlyn muttered. “Do we have list of anyone with badges?”

“They’ve been told,” Adison said.

“Good. What else?” Carlyn sat back in his chair as Adison and Collin sat down on the other side of his desk and began working through the mess. Raji and Becka joined them after a while and together they began putting things back together. By the end of the day it almost seemed like things were going to be alright. They were finally getting a real working number of how much of their operation was damaged.

It total, it turned out of they had about a forty-sixty split between muscle and workers. The muscle was three-fourths alpha and one-fourth beta. Of that half the total muscle was recovering from active involvement in the riots. Of the workers, it was an astonishing eighty-percent omega and twenty-percent beta. The betas here made out well, being mostly unmarried and therefore overlooked by the Pride. The omegas however, we’re almost three quarters missing or injured. Some were dead, a few killed from being manhandled, few because the experience had been too much, and they had committed suicide. Carlyn wanted the attackers of the dead omegas found and brought to him. Them he wanted to deal with using his own two hands.

While the damage and anger were still very present, it felt more like they were in control, a feeling Carlyn approved of. Maybe Johann would say it was because he was an alpha. Maybe he’d understand because all Johann wanted was to control his own life. Either way, Carlyn was feeling better.

And then his phone rang, and it was Karen.

“I do not need this,” Carlyn said to himself, but he raised his hand for silence and picked up the call anyway. “Hello, Mom.”

“Carlyn. Are you okay?”

“Am I okay?”

“Yes. Saw what was happening on TV. I was worried about you. I asked Lyric about you. What are doing?”

“Working.”

“Working? Where? You’re not home. I was just there.”

“Why were you just there, Mom?”

“Well … To tell the truth I felt bad about that night. The night you came over with your new omega. You were right. I do treat my omega badly. So, I’m going to start over. I’ve let them all go. Paid off their apartments and everything, given them a little parting money and I’m going to start over, starting by remodeling my home to add a proper harem to it.”

“Good for you, Mom,” Carlyn said. He meant it to. He’d changed since meeting Johann and didn’t see why his mother couldn’t change too. This was best news he’d gotten all day.

“And to make it up to you, I’ve given you a little treat. That’s why I went over to your house. Only your new omega was there, so I gave it to him for you.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Carlyn smiled a bit and nodded. “What is it?”

“Now don’t tell anyone I did this. It’s top secret. There’s a new drug out on a market. I have all the details about at home. It’s FDA approved and once House Resolution 183 is approved it’ll be all over the country. Things like those riots won’t happen anymore. Omegas will be safe. And, as a special bonus, if you know the right people, you can get it for household use.”

Carlyn was frowning now. “Wait, wait, wait. Mom. What drug? What are you talking about?”

“Go home from work darling. Trust me. You’ll be delighted. I’ve got to go now. Call me, darling. Bye!” The line went dead.

Carlyn sat for a moment, frowning and trying to make heads or tails out of what his mother had said. “Shit,” he said as he stood.

“Um,” Becka said. “Not to bug you, boss, but my uncle gave me a present of this injectable for my omegas this morning. I was sort of busy, so I didn’t read the whole card but … is it … dangerous?”

“I don’t know,” Carlyn said as he crossed the room. “But I don’t trust Karen Tracy, even if she is my mother. Don’t give it to them! I’ll call when I can.”

“By ‘your newest omega’ doesn’t she mean Johann?” Adison called.

Carlyn didn’t answer. He just rushed out of the room towards the front door.


	10. Chapter 10

The drive home seemed to take forever. Carlyn didn’t bother to park in the garage when he finally got there. He parked in front on the front door, in case he had to take Johann to the hospital, and charged into the front door, calling Johann’s name.

The first floor seemed empty. There were two untouched cups of coffee going cold on the dinning room table, but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. Carlyn kept calling Johann’s name as he swept the first floor, just in case he was passed out somewhere, and then headed up the stairs. The first place he went when he got upstairs was his bedroom, but that was empty. He decided to would check Johann’s room next, then Loren, Josh, and Davis’s rooms.

When Carlyn opened the door to Johann’s room, he was a hit with a smell that nearly knocked him to his knees. It was hot, musky, and unnaturally powerfully. The scent made his head swim. Suddenly it filled with images he’d never seen before, Johann in deliciously compromised positions, begging, wanting. Carlyn bit the inside of his mouth, but it did little to lessen the hungry urges clawing at the pit of his stomach.

He lurched backwards, catching himself on the hallway wall and sliding down it. His body was reacting already, begging him act on the delicious smell coming from Johann’s room. Carlyn ignored it and pulled himself to his feet and towards the stairs. With a foggy head he struggled down the stairs, half crawling, half sliding. At the bottom of the stairs, he noticed that he’d closed the front door behind him, which was probably for the best. Sitting at the bottom of the stairs, Carlyn felt a little more clearheaded. He breathed in slowly, getting the sickeningly arousing smell of Johann out of his lungs. When he felt he was clearheaded enough to walk, he got up and wobbled to the kitchen.

Loren’s hand-me-down guaranteed alpha-away potion supposedly wasn’t hard to make, but for obvious reasons Carlyn had never needed to make it. He fumbled her cook book down from its home on the shelves. It’s arcane symbols, old leather binding, and heavy brass lock made it look more like a spell book than a cook book. It was an old tale that omega’s had powers, that they were secretly witches. It was nonsense, of course, but Loren’s cook book gave Carlyn a definite sense of unease. He flipped it open delicately, scared his shaking hands might damage it and filled with an unexplained horror about what damaging might do, and looked at the front pages.

The first few pages had been pre-marked with numbers for all the pages in the book. Some were filled in, but the line corresponding the back of the book were blank. There was room to add more. There were four different handwritings in the opening pages, the first had done all the numbers and the first dozen entries before it switched to the second hand, who went back and added approximate dates to the first set of entries and dated their own. The third hand added the bulk of the entries, written in careful, tiny cursive and dated recently enough to have come from Loren’s mother. The fourth hand was obviously Loren’s, and some of those entries had been written in the house. One was for a pain potion specifically for alphas. That one stood out as being the first entry to focus on helping an alpha.

Carlyn was sorely tempted to skim through Loren’s entries, but shook his head and searched for the alpha-replant. He found in the first section, as one of the first potions listed. It was both underlined and starred.

The entry itself was written three times, one for a single dose, once for a double dose, and once for making group batches. Carlyn winced and swallowed his inherited guilt. He stumbled through making a single dose, and when it was blended up, tried to swallow some. It went badly.

He heaved and threw up violently in the sink. It wasn’t just the taste of it. It was like his entire body was offended by something in mixture. He went momentarily blind and thought he could feel his throat and tongue itching. It felt wrong, very wrong. And yet Carlyn tried again, a smaller sip this time. He was half sure he’d just tried to swallow too much. But less of potion yielded a similar if not worse result. Carlyn found himself choking, unable to breathe with spots in his vision. He made a motion to spit the potion out but found his mouth was half numb.

‘Mistake! This was a mistake!’ he screamed in his head.

When his vision came back completely, he went back to the spell book and flipped a page. There behind the alpha repellant was the antidote. He figured if the repellant had poisoned him, the antidote should cure him. After blending up a batch, he careful stuck two fingers in the resulting goop and brushed it on the inside of his mouth. The swelling there began to go down. Assured, Carlyn took small sip, gargled, and spit into the sink. He only let himself linger in relief until he could breathe almost normally. Then he took the alpha repellant and headed back upstairs.

As he reached the top of the stairs Carlyn began huffing, big breaths of the repellant. It made him sick but helped counteract the smell of Johann drifting down the hall from his room. By the time Carlyn made it in Johann’s room his face was almost inside the bowl to keep his reaction down.

“Johann!” he called but received no reply. However, he did hear the shower running and under the powerful scent of pheromones he smelled cold water.

Carlyn took another deep breath of repellant and walked into Johann’s bathroom. Once inside, he found Johann at last, curled up naked on his shower floor, under a spray ice cold water.

“Johann?!” Carlyn turned off the water and pulled Johann out of the shower.

Despite the surface of his skin being freezing from the water, Johann was burning hot. There were strands of loose hair on his hands and on the shower floor, as if he’d pulled it out in frustration, and nail marks on his body, particularly his palms and upper arms. His lip had been bloody not long before but was now only bitten and split. Despite this obvious self-abuse Johann was aroused. His chest was swollen, more so than it ought to have been even in heat, and he was hard. And the smell that was coming from between his legs was overwhelming.

Part of Carlyn wanted to check between Johann’s legs. He was afraid that Johann had hurt himself there by accident or on purpose. But he didn’t dare; he couldn’t dare! He was already so hungry for him. Johann smelled so good. And his body would be relieved if only Carlyn would help him.

Carlyn reached for the bowl, took two fingers of the repellant and put it in his mouth. He didn’t try to swallow it, but it just being in his mouth was enough. Forcing himself to move slowly as he put Johann down, he got up, moved to the sink and spit the repellant out. Then he dry-heaved for a minute or two before rinsing his mouth out.

Freshly disgusted by the repellant, Carlyn took some towels and wrapped Johann up in them. Once Johann was settled on the bed, he called Becka.

“Don’t use the drug,” he said when she picked up. “It’s dangerous. Take it to the university and have Davis run some tests on it. If he says no, tell him Johann got injected with it and needs something to reverse it.”

_“What is it?”_

“Something to induce a fake heat, I think.”

_“Why would I want to induce a fake heat? We barely get through the real ones!”_

“I don’t know yet, Becks. I’ll figure it out. Take the sample to Davis. Warn everyone with an omega. This is suspect. Don’t trust it.”

_“Right. Bye.”_

Carlyn hung up, sighed and closed his eyes. He was so tired. The thought of just lying down with Johann entered his head, when arms wrapped around his torso. He turned to find Johann up from bed, standing behind him, with his forehead pressed against his shoulder.

“Johann?” Carlyn called. He could feel Johann’s arousal pressed up against him.

“Carlyn …” Johann muttered. “Please… It hurts, so much.”

“You’re in pain?” Carlyn turned in the omega’s grasp and put his hands on either side of his face. “Where does it hurt? What do you feel?”

“Hurts,” Johann moaned miserably. “Please. Make it stop.”

“I can’t,” Carlyn brushed his thumb across Johann’s cheek. “I’m sorry. Davis will figure it out soon. He’s working at the university lab and -"

“Please make it stop,” Johann said louder. “Just … do it.”

“What?” Carlyn shifted uncomfortably. He thought he knew what Johann meant, but he was praying he was wrong. “Do … what?”

Johann choked on a sob and tightened his hands into fists around the fabric of Carlyn’s shirt. He put his forehead down on Carlyn’s chest. “Please, just fuck me. Please, make it stop.”

“I … can’t…” Carlyn muttered.

Johann head whipped up to look him in the face. He was crying, his face red. “It’s fine!” he said. “I don’t care! It’s fine if it’s you. Just please make it stop!”

“I can’t!” Carlyn shouted. “You don’t know what you’re saying. I can’t do that to you. Your ideals!”

“I don’t care about my ideals! I just want to be fucked. Please! You. Or Lyric if you won’t. Or one of your brothers. Please! I don’t care! I don’t care!”

“You may not,” Carlyn said as he stepped around Johann towards the bed, “but I do.”

Carlyn pulled back the bedsheets, took the thinnest one, and began ripping it up with his teeth. Once he had it in pieces, he used the pieces to tie Johann up. Johann was unexpectantly compliant, only whimpering sometimes and trying in vain to rub against Carlyn. Then Carlyn wrapped Johann up in the remaining sheets and placed him in bed. Kissing his forehead, Carlyn pushed back Johann’s hair.

“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered. “I’m going to protect you. I promise.”

“Please,” Johann whimpered. Carlyn ignored him.

 

*******

This was so much worse than the three days Johann had first spent with Carlyn. He whimpered; he begged; he was shameless. Carlyn sat with him for every moment of those three days, holding him, stroking his bare arms and legs, trying to sooth him without giving in to his pleas for sex.

There were times that Carlyn barely knew where he was or what he was doing. When he dozed off, he woke up to himself holding Johann too tightly, allowing Johann to grind against him too much. Carlyn sometimes woke up with a moan on his lips, hungry, and needing Johann more desperately than he had ever needed anything. Loren whipped up something to dampen his want. The potion made him groggy and unhappy, but his body went numb and didn’t react to Johann’s scent, wriggling, and biting. Loren suggested Carlyn let Johann bite him. Alpha blood supposed assuage an omega’s lust, a notion which vaguely made sense, given the practical reality of mating and bonding, but reminded Carlyn that omegas were supposedly witches.

The message about the danger of the drug had gone out too late for some. While Carlyn kept Johann calm at home, Lyric had her hands full with three of her omegas all injected by Karen. Eden had been warned but missed the chance to call home before Karen got there. However, his omegas had never trusted Karen and she only pulled out a syringe and got one of them with it, the other threatened her with a gun to make her leave. Sage’s omega refused to open the door for her, but that still left four omegas close to Johann sick. However, being bond with alphas, they had an easy out.

“You’re just going to …” Carlyn was almost shocked at the suggestion.

 _“Of course,”_ Lyric said over the phone. “ _They’re my mates. My omegas. I understand … with Johann … it’s fake. That’s probably the right decision, even if he’s asking you to do otherwise. But for my mates, this is the easiest way to help them. I asked around. It shouldn’t take that long.”_

Carlyn frowned, one arm around Johann. The omega was sleeping, knocking out by something Loren had whipped up and Davis had given him.

“If you think so.”

_“Some alphas have given this stuff to their omegas on purpose. They regret it. This isn’t natural, Carlyn. It’s not some aphrodisiac or something. It’s wrong.”_

“I know. Hopefully, Davis will -”

“Carlyn!” Davis burst into the room, still dressed in his jacket, waving a small white box around. “I have it! We made it!”

“Davis?”

_“Did he say he made it?!”_

“Lyric?” Davis shouted. “Yea, I’ve got it! I sent some to your house, too! Each needle is preloaded with the correct dose!”

_“Oh, thank god! I’d rather have the antidote. Thank you, Davis! Bye Carlyn.”_

“Bye Lyr,” Carlyn said and hung the phone. “Davis. You got it done. It’s only been four days.”

“I haven’t slept,” Davis said, then laughed in a slightly on edge way. “Here, let me over see the injection and go to bed before I start seeing things.

The injection was quick, just a prick in the arm while Johann was sleeping. Then Carlyn took Davis to bed and gave him his bear to keep him company.

“You’re amazing,” Carlyn said.

“Anything for family,” Davis muttered into the fur of the bear.

With a kiss to Davis’s head, Carlyn left Davis to sleep and returned to Johann’s bedroom. When he got there, he found Loren and Josh sitting on either side of Johann, looking over him.

“How’s he doing.” Carlyn asked.

“His pulse is down,” Loren said. “And so is his temperature.”

“Really? Good.” Carlyn said down on the foot of the bed and sighed. He was still wearing his clothes from four days ago. It seemed like a lifetime ago. “When do you think he’ll wake up?”

“Only Davis or someone on his team would know that,” Josh said. “His mouth is all bloody.”

“It’s my blood,” Carlyn assured him.

“Speaking of,” Loren said. “Here.” She handed him a bottle of whiskey. “Drink that as fast as you can. This is going to hurt. I’m going to stitch up those bites.”

“What am I going to do?” Carlyn asked, talking about his marred neck. Johann had bitten right over Loren, Davis, and Josh’s marks.

“Nothing. Marks don’t mean anything. It’s just show and instinct.”

“Really?” Josh asked. “What about the pheromones that get in the wound?”

Loren laughed. “It just asked as a … mental bonding agent. Makes you attached to them. But it wears off in a few weeks. By the time the wound heals, you don’t have any of it left in your system.”

“I thought it lasts forever,” Josh said wistfully.

“Not so,” Loren said. She was sterilizing a needle she got out of her medical kit.

Carlyn wasn’t fond of that kit. Of course, that was because he only ever saw it when someone was injured. But it was somehow alarming, all old-fashioned tools, that were somehow brand-new, herbs he’d never heard of, and notes in tiny script. It was all housed in an old-fashioned but brand-new leather case that looked more like a vampire slayer’s kit than a doctor’s bag. Carlyn wasn’t sure if he wanted to go back to ignoring the kit like he usually did or keep an even closer eye on it.

“Should we go to emergency room?” Carlyn asked.

“Nonsense,” Loren dismissed. “This is how it’s been done for ages. Now hold still.”

Carlyn took along swing of whiskey, then did as he was told.

The sewing wasn’t quite so bad as he thought it was going to be. At least Loren was quick with her stitches. When she was done, she rubbed her own salve for numbing pain on it, then had him something for the pain and something else to go to sleep, assuring him it was only half strength.

“We’re all going to need good nap around here,” Loren said as Carlyn crawled into bed.

“You have no idea,” Carlyn said. He could smell Johann. Instead of pheromones, Carlyn smelled the scent of what he’d begun tracking down when Johann first entered his life. Only now he knew what it was that he was chasing. It was the smell of a threat.

 

*******

Carlyn stood in his mother’s kitchen smoking a cigarette, drinking a glass of whiskey. He had drunk two small glasses already, and he didn’t know if he was celebrating or drowning his sorrows. It seemed like a little of him doing both. He felt like a man who who’d finally killed his worst enemy, on the evening before he was sent to war. Carlyn drained the glass and took another drag on the cigarette. On the counter his phone rang, and instead of answering, he tapped the button for the garage door and had it open. A few moments later, the garage door closed. Tempted to pour himself another glass, Carlyn glanced at the whiskey bottle.

“Drinking, Carlyn?” Raji asked as he came in the door.

“Yes,” Carlyn answered simply.

“Well, stop. Get cleaned up.”

Behind Raji a small team of omegas trailed in. One of their cleanup crews, pulled off duty mopping up the scene of Pride member eliminations the Fangs were working on at the moment, and brought to Karen Tracy’s mansion at Carlyn’s request.

“Shouldn’t be much to clean up,” Carlyn said, putting on his cigarette in a dish, then watching the dish and cigarette butt be swept away into a bag by a member of the cleanup crew. “I got behind her, put her in a sleeper hold, then broke her neck.”

“Never be too confident,” Raji said.

“Mhm,” Carlyn relented.

Carlyn stood still and let the cleanup crew do their work. They scrubbed and tented off an area for him to change in, changed his clothes and shoes, bagged up everything he took off, and began bagging Karen’s body.

Carlyn watched his mother disappear into a black bag without any real emotion attached to it.

“What were you doing here?” Raji asked. “Johann’s only been awake two days. Shouldn’t you be with him?”

“I came to kill her. And to get some paperwork.”

“What paperwork?”

“You’ll see at the meeting.”


	11. Chapter 11

At the Fangs base, Carlyn gathered his sub-bosses, and a few of the workers he trusted more to the central meeting space. He told the alpha and beta to bring their omegas. He made noted of which groups and pairs had children. He invited some single omega, who normally never came to group meetings, and sat them where they would bridge the divide between the Fangs and their guests. He invited his siblings and had them each bring all their omegas with them. Then when everyone was assembled, he took off his Lucretian Legion badge, pushed the two swords together, and took out one. Then he waited.

A convoy of trucks, the trucks originally belonging to the Fangs, arrived at the gates in half an hour. Felix, trailed by Taylor and a dozen-and-a-half members of the Legion, walked into the meeting room, looked around and sat down.

“A distress signal?” Felix said, almost playfully. “You could have had someone put a request to meet through.”

“I sent a distress signal because this is an emergency,” Carlyn said.

“An emergency?” Felix frowned. “Explain.”

“What have you heard about House Resolution 183?”

The entire Lucretian Legion reacted, like a current going through them. Felix leaned forward and steepled his fingers.

“I would have said,” he began, “that I’ve heard good things. The Dignity of Omega Status Act. Finally. Everything we’ve worked for, protected by law. Omegas really protected by law at last. But I’m guessing we’ve been sold out.”

Carlyn stared into Felix eyes and said first thing that came to mind. “I’m sorry.”

“How bad is it?” Felix asked calmly.

“You’ve no doubt seen the new drug on the street,” Carlyn said.

“Heat, they’re calling it,” Taylor said. “Melanotan XX. It’s a monstrosity.”

“It’s only part of the plan,” Carlyn said. “The riots changed the minds of the people in Congress. Old, conservative, know-it-alls. They think that life for omegas is too dangerous. So, they want to bring back new, improved, nationally backed, computerized pairing centers.”

The word cut through the omegas in the crowd like a knife. Carlyn saw it, felt it. It smelled like someone about to throw up.

“They’ll be like boarding schools,” Carlyn continued. “Omegas will be brought in when they’re designated as such and leave when they’re bonded with an alpha. In-between, they’ll be kept on a low dose of Melanotan. It’s supposed to help keep omegas calm and reverse residual effects caused by the widespread use of heat suppressants. Of course, that’s all horseshit. They’re planning on gathering every single omega and marking them like cattle.

“And if you think you’re an omega who safe because you’re married, forget that. Only omegas in the harem of alpha are deemed mated. Beta-marriages under the new law will only be valid if the omega is officially mated to an alpha, and that alpha signs off on a member of their harem marrying a beta.

“And if you’re thinking you’re safe as part of a harem, every alpha has to register their omega with a pair center and have their bonds approved. If they’re not, the omegas will be removed and placed in a pairing center.

“Lastly for those of you with children, once any of your children are designated as an omega, they must leave home and entering a pairing center. You will have limited access to them, and very limited control - if any - over what happens to them.”

The room was deathly quiet. People were looking around, looking at each other, looking at Carlyn and at Felix, waiting for someone to do something.

“When will they vote on this?” Felix asked. There was something different about his voice. It came from far away.

“Two weeks, if the schedule holds,” Carlyn replied.

“We have to destroy the labs making Heat!” one of the Fangs said. “That shit has to be destroyed!”

“No!” Felix said. “More violence will only push the vote up. It must be destroyed, I agree but only as part of a coordinated effort.”

“A group effort,” Carlyn said. “If we don’t all stand against this, we will all lose. Who is sure their lives and families will be safe? Their children? Is anyone willing to risk their own marriages and mates to this new system? Is anyone sure they can save themselves?”

Raji stood up, his 2 omegas huddled close to him. “No one is taking my family from me!” he said. “Anyway, who are they going to let decide which alphas get to have harems and which don’t? Look around; we’re a bunch of omegas who won’t be bonded and bunch of black and brown alphas and betas. Who do you think they’re going to come for first? After they have every omega in chains who’s going to end up in chains next?!”

A low murmur of agreement went through the crowd. The Lucretian Legion came from all races of omega, but the Fangs were black and black-latinx.

“The people in this room,” Adison said, “are the people they demonize on daily basis. This game they’re playing is like the drug war. It’s never been about keeping people safe.”

Then, slowly, one of the omegas from the Fangs stood up. The Lucretian Legion and Fang looked at her, and she hunched her shoulders a bit. But it wasn’t in fear; it was defensive.

“Now you all see,” she said. “You see what the world is like. It’s weird. The Fangs was always safer than being out on the streets. Pru took care of the girls. Carlyn took care of everybody. If you were a Fang, you were untouchable. That was something an omega couldn’t normally get. It was like being made from steel. But now they’re coming to take that too.” She paused for a moment and Carlyn wished he knew her name. “Fuck that.” She said. “They can drag me away kicking and biting. I will not go back to being a thing. Not ever.”

The Lucretian Legion began to cheer in aloud synchronized roar, which fed into the room and was picked up the Fangs. The cheering lasted for a few minutes, and when it died down, Felix had walked over Carlyn and was whispering in his ear.

“We have work to do,” the omega said.

Carlyn nodded.

 

*******

The weather was beautiful and sunny on the day of the vote. It was almost unrealistic how nice it was outside the Capitol. For Carlyn nothing seemed quite real. He was walking with his harem down the main road towards the Capitol. Behind him and to his sides were other families, members of the Lucretian Legion, members of the Fangs, families from the communities, groups of single omegas who were friends. They walked in silence, in t-shirts and jeans, in boots and sneakers. The alphas took nothing with them. Betas and omegas and carried backpacks full of supplies.

It took a while for their silent march to gain attention because they drifted in a little at a time. Then the news started trickling in. Capitals across the country were all experiencing the same silence march. Reports asked questions, but the crowd kept their eyes on the Capitol and said nothing. As the marchers grew in numbers, the space between them shrunk then disappeared. They kept walk walking still, crowding closer and closer to the Capitol, filling the streets that formed a block around it, perfectly ordered on all sides.

Alpha were on the outside, closest to the Capitol, closest to the street. As they jammed in, Carlyn reached for his harem, let them take his hands, and felt them let him go and they slipped deeper into the crowd. Just beyond the Alphas were the betas, and in the middle of the group were the omegas.

Carlyn faced out. Reporters and news crews had their cameras pointed at them, shouted questions that went unanswered. Police milled around but did nothing. The protest had been kept very low profile, word of mouth only, but Felix had quietly placed the proper forms anyway. He made no guarantee on how the forms would protect them once things got going. Carlyn didn’t care. He normally ignored the law anyway.

They waited. The stood in silence under the hot sun for what seemed like hours and waited, then all at once a thousand little beeps rose up from inside their formation. The notifications got turned off a few at a time before the banners went up and the smoke bombs went out.

Grey canisters flew over the alphas’ heads and landed between them and the reports and police. As the smoke rose, the chant begun.

“We are not things!” the omegas roared. “Vote down H.R. 183! We are not things! Vote down H.R. 183!”

The reporters were first through the smoke, taking pictures and shooting film, taking fast and asking questions. The alphas stood, arms linked, stoned-faced not allowing anyone closer to inner group.

The police were next through the line, shouting instructions to disband, which were ignored for the moment. They would become a bigger threat soon enough.

The chant rose up from all sides of the Capitol Building. Carlyn couldn’t see, but knew from the plans that they had the streets filled and soon enough -

A loud crash interrupted Carlyn’s thoughts, but the chanting went on. “We are not things!” Another crash in distance at just right interval. “Vote down H.R. 183!” Another, farther off, which left one more to go. “We are not things!” And the last. Now not only were the streets surround the Capitol Building filled with people, the intersections were blocked with tipped over trucks, just as planned. The police were becoming more aggressive. The chant was growing louder.

Ten minutes seemed like an hour. Thirty minutes seemed like a lifetime. Soon the reporters began asking about laboratories began attacked the drug Melanotan XX being destroyed. That was proof that a half hour had pasted. The chant changed.

“Omegas are not things! Vote down H.R. 183!” the omegas and beta shouted. As agreed, the alphas were not going to speak. They were going to be silent protectors, the guardians of everyone else.

Through the fading smoke from the bombs and haze of activity Carlyn saw the police assemble opposite them. He almost pitied them. How many of them had harems, had spouses, had children? They would all be taken from them. They were fools.

The first round of tear gas was a surprise. They threw it close to them, but not in their ranks. The betas slipped masks over the alphas face while the alphas kept their ranks closed. Carlyn pulled the alphas he was locked arms with closer to him and felt them do the same. It was a strange feeling, so many alphas touching willingly, but natural in a some long-forgotten way.

The day drew on. The police attempted to force them to disband and the chanting counted out each passing minute. Carlyn felt his body begin to wear down from lack of food, lack of water, exhaustion. The lines of people held each other up as the sun set.

News kept moral up. Local politicians from around the country had sided with the protestors, promising to refuse to enforce the contents of the Dignity of Omega Status Act, should it be passed. One representative, an alpha woman with a harem and grown omega children, got ahold of the bill and posted it online. She then read it out loud, surrounded by protesters.

“My harem is not full of objects,” he said. “They are not public property, or my property! They are human beings with rights given to them by their creator. My children will not be slaves! Congress will vote down H.R. 183, or they will pay for it.”

The evening came rolling in and the police grew more and casual about their interactions. They stopped spraying pepper spray as the sun disappeared. They began putting away their shields after that and edging closer to the lines. Finally, one of them came trotting up with a case of water and began passing it back.

Carlyn barely noticed when Adison came, lifted his mask and helped his drink a few sips. He was aware of the water though. It was cold, and best feeling he’d had in a long time. He closed his to enjoy it. Figures floated around his head. Bodies twice his size moved around him, alphas, betas, and omegas, all working in tandem. Every type of human just living and working together. Carlyn thought he was in some sort of utopia. But his head hurt and so did his back and legs and feet. There were others lying beside him. All types. He wondered if they were dead, if the water was poisoned. He worried about his harem and his siblings and their harems. They were all out there somewhere in the march. Carlyn really hoped he wasn’t dead.


	12. Chapter 12

The deep breath that came with waking startled Carlyn a little. One moment he was floating in a state of half being, the next he was solid and laying in his bed. He sat up slowly, blinking away the ache thumping in his forehead. He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten home, or how long he’d been out. His first instinct was to get up and call for his harem, make sure they were alright. But before he could make himself get out of bed, the door opened, and Josh walked in.

“Carlyn?” Josh said.

“Joshy? Where … What happened?”

“Guys!” Josh yelled. “He’s up! He’s okay! Guys!” Josh ran to the bed and threw himself partially on Carlyn which tugged a little on the IV in Carlyn’s arm.

“Ah!” Carlyn groaned. “How did I? What happened at the march?”

“Carlyn!” Loren said as she marched into the room and sat on the empty side of the bed. “Honey, are you alright?”

“I’d feel better if I knew what happened,” Carlyn said as nicely as he could. He smiled at Davis who climbed onto the bed and gave him a hug.

“You passed out from exhaustion at the march,” Davis said. “You, Felix, and dozens of others. The riots, the cleanup, the protest, all back to back, it was just too much with too little rest.”

“I told you that you needed rest,” Loren said. “You should have seen that Taylor.”

“Yea,” Josh said. “That hot broad strip, or broad cloth whatever she is beta. She took over the Lucretian Legion after Felix passed out. She’s a badass.”

“She’s a Broad Band Tribute,” Loren said. “And a badass. Becka took over for you when you passed out.”

“Good,” Carlyn said. “How did we get home?”

“We dragged anyone who passed out to center of the ranks for safety,” Davis said. “The police offered to take you, but we were worried about breaking ranks. The night went and eventually went got news that H.R. 183 had died.”

“It died?” Carlyn breathed. “Really?”

“In the house,” Josh said. “It barely got any votes. There were petitions, protests, threats they would never work in politics again. Calls flooded offices, emails too. Besides the companies building the pairing centers took hit in stock prices, so did the labs that make Heat. The whole plan was falling apart around them. They had no choice.”

Carlyn chuckled. “Thank God for that.”

“Yea,” Loren said, leaning down to kiss his forehead.

“After we got the all-clear, we packed up and got everyone who needed it to a hospital,” Davis sighed. “You were only in a hospital a few hours. We convinced your doctor to let us take you home.”

“Good,” Carlyn said. “I’d be unhappy if I woke up in a hospital room.” He sighed. “Now, where’s Johann?”

Loren, Josh and Davis paused and looked at each other. Then they all began to get off the bed.

“We’ll get him,” Loren said with a small smile.

“Where is he?” Carlyn asked, sitting up. “Why isn’t he here?”

“Just hush, honey,” Loren said. “We’re going to get him.”

With nothing he could do, Carlyn sat back and waited. He smelled Johann coming before he saw him enter the doorway. Johann smelled anxious. Carlyn shifted in bed.

Johann appeared at door and hovered at entrance without coming in. He was dressed casually, jeans and t-shirt. Carlyn finally had time to notice Johann’s hair had been cut. It was layered now, and relatively short, falling around his face and ears. It was too short to put in a ponytail in any case. It seemed to have gotten wavier with the length removed.

“Johann?” Carlyn muttered.

“Hey,” Johann said, then came inside and partially closed the door behind him. He walked up the bed and sat down by Carlyn, frowning. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Carlyn said. “You?”

“I’m fine.”

“Good. But you look … upset.”

Johann took a deep breath and looked away. “Did I ever tell you how I joined the Lucretian Legion?”

“No.”

“When I was a kid, I knew I was gay before got my designation.”

“Well, then,” Carlyn said. “People must have thought you were going to be an alpha.”

Johann laughed. “Yea, pretty much. You know what they say about gay teens.”

“They’re always alphas or omegas,” Carlyn stated.

“Yea. Well I thought I’d be an alpha. My dad was so sure and so proud.” Johann frowned. “He was crushed when he found out the truth. Mom wasn’t though. She and Minnie were Dad’s only omegas. They were thrilled. They got me on suppressants and everything.

“But problem was, there was this guy. My best friend. He was like the Superman to my Batman. We were the iconic duo, you know. And he was always trailing a little behind me. So, I’d thought, I’d be an alpha and he’d be in my harem. … But I was an omega. I didn’t know what to do.

“Turns out though he was an alpha and he had no intentions of breaking us up. He said he loved me. I believed him. We were sixteen, of course I believed him. He started doing things for me, carrying my stuff, getting my lunch, anything he could for me. I loved it. It felt … special. He even invited me on a skiing trip with his family.”

“That’s good,” Carlyn said hopefully. He knew how this was going to end of course, but he couldn’t help but try to make Johann smile.

“I know,” Johann said, giving in, smiling. “I was so excited. I let him take all my bags. I wasn’t even mad when he lost one of them. I wasn’t even mad when I figured out it was the one with my suppressant in it. After all, he loved me. He’d protect me from any alpha that tried to get near me. I thought I had nothing to worry about.”

Carlyn frowned. “What happened.”

“He raped me. He slept in my room because we’d been sleeping in the same room for years. He said he couldn’t help himself. He told me that my pheromones made him do it. I tried to fight him but, I don’t know, something was wrong with me. I couldn’t. I hated every minute of it, but I couldn’t get away. I was frozen.

“The next morning, I took a little bag with some of my stuff and left. By the time I got home my parents knew what happened and that I had run away. I found Minnie first. She shut me in the harem. I didn’t understand why. I wanted my parents. Then Dad came home and found me. He yelled at me. He was so furious at me for running away. He said I’d finally done something decent, landed an alpha, and I had to go and screw it up. He said he’d had to cover for me to make sure they still wanted me.”

Johann sighed. He looked so tired.

“Adam - that was his name, Adam - he hounded me at school. Public love confessions, flowers, the works. Showed up at my clubs and part-time job. And every time I saw him, I froze. I felt warm for a second before I would snap out of it. But it started to take me longer and longer to snap to senses, and everyone just wanted me to get with him. So I did. I dated him, married him right out of high school.”

“Was he a good alpha, after that?” Carlyn asked.

Johann laughed gently. “No. He kept raping me. Blamed it on my pheromones. I tried taking suppressants, but they kept disappearing. From the bathroom cabinet, then my bedside drawer, then my bag, my car, my locker at work. I couldn’t seem to keep them. And he kept at it. Then I got a shot. After work, once a month. Didn’t tell him about it. Told him the suppressants were making me gain too much weight. He raped me still. It took me that long to figure it out. I told my doctor I was going to kill myself. She told me to go to this yoga studio for omegas.”

“Yoga?” Carlyn said indignantly. “You tell her that and she tells you to go do yoga?”

“I was pissed too,” Johann shrugged. “But she insisted. Pressed this one spot. No other, she said. Go here. I did yoga for six months. It was nice. I got strong. I almost felt at peace. I learned to turn off my brain. Then six months in, they went on a retreat. We were all invited, told to pack light because there would be hiking. Adam was happy I was getting out instead of moping. He liked these classes. I liked how flexible I was; he liked my body. I went on the retreat and never saw him again.

“The Lucretian Legion controls the retreat. They use places like it to whisk omegas in bad situations away from their abusers.”

“That’s amazing,” Carlyn said.

“I met Annabelle in the Legion. You’ve seen her with Felix and Taylor.”

“The omega girl,” Carlyn said keeping his face as neutral as possible.

Johann smiled softly. “She was my first real friend in the Legion. Annabelle had been giving to a pairing center by her parents. She wasn’t like the others. She was like me. Angry, driven.”

“And you two worked your way up in the ranks together,” Carlyn guess with genuine smile.

“We were furious and dedicated to the cause. I think Felix liked that about us.”

“I like that about you.” Carlyn shifted in bed and in doing so his eyes caught sight of his bear. “Did I ever tell you about Mr. Pookey?”

“The teddy bear?” Johann asked in a flat voice.

“Yes, my bear.”

“I did wonder why you’re a grown ass man with a teddy bear.”

“It was a gift from my birth mother,” Carlyn said with a smile.

“Oh,” Johann whispered. “You said she wasn’t bonded to Karen.”

Carlyn closed his eyes and smiled tightly. “Around the time I was born, the alpha women my mother spent time with had these parties where they used their harems in common. The children from these orgies were normally given the fathers by mutual agreement, or the alpha of birth mother and alpha who fathered the child would come to some sort of agreement.”

“All I’m hearing,” Johann said with a deep frown, “is they made a shit ton of bastards with no intentions of putting them anywhere.”

“Well … you could put it that way, yes. Karen was more careful than most though. I was her first, and I’m supposedly her only bastard. Basically, she was only black alpha in the party and when I popped out, they tried to give her to me and she refused to take me. So, I lived in the harem with my birth mother.”

“You … lived in a harem?”

“Yea. It was wonderful. I spent time with only omegas. They bought me little outfits and taught me to walk. I was home schooled. I was always happy.”

“That’s so nice,” Johann said with a smile.

“It was,” Carlyn said. Then he frowned. “But then I got designated at fifteen. I was an alpha. Lyric found out by word of mouth. She hadn’t even known I existed before that, but she came to see me anyway. She wanted Karen to take me in. I don’t know how she convince her, but two weeks later I left the harem. The only thing I could take with me was Mr. Pookey.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay… I never liked Karen’s house. It was cold and lonely. My brothers didn’t get along with my as much as Lyric did. Karen ignored me like she did her omega and her children. When I took over the Fangs and got my own harem, I guess I just built my own world around myself.

“You were right about me. I did live in a bubble, a fantasy land where I didn’t have to deal with things outside my own life.”

“I was hard on you,” Johann admitted.

“You were right about me,” Carlyn said.

They sat together, not speaking for a moment. Carlyn reached out with his skewered arm and took Johann’s hand.

“I’m glad I met you,” he said.

“Me too,” Johann said. “Can I make a confession?”

“Of course.”

“I’ve been sleeping with Loren, Josh, and Davis.”

“You … oh.” Carlyn smiled. “Okay.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No. You’re their harem-brother. And I had wondered about … well there was one night we discussed … urges.”

“Yea. I know,” Johann said. “That’s why I wouldn’t have minded if you had-”

“I would never-”

“I know, but I would have understood. I got … I guess … used to sleeping with someone, so one night I was staying up with Josh in his room, and he offered to let me stay the night and I just … I wanted to tell you, but it just brought up all these feeling I wasn’t ready to deal with.”

Carlyn smiled. “I get it. You don’t want this. You don’t want me. I understand your beliefs and I would never ask you to betray them. But I know Davis, Josh, and Loren will miss you if you leave.”

Staring with a blank smile, Johann froze. Carlyn watched him, trying to figure out what he’d said wrong. After a moment Johann took a long, deep breath.

“You are an idiot, Carlyn Tracy,” Johann said through clenched teeth. “What I’m trying to say is, I love it here. I love your harem. I love being a part of your harem. I love fixing breakfast in the morning with Loren, and dinner at night. I love trying reigning Josh in during shopping trips and listening to Davis talking about chemistry and biology. I love waking up next to you.

“When I was poisoned, the one thing that kept me calm was that you would find me, and even if you were affected by whatever it was, it would be okay because it was you. You’d take care of me no matter what and keep me safe. I was happy you choose to uphold my ideals, but I wouldn’t have been angry if you had chosen differently.” Johann put his free hand on top of Carlyn’s. “I would have even thanked you for it. But only if it had been you.”

“I could never,” Carlyn said.

“I know,” Johann sighed. “I got permission to stay here, if you’ll have me.”

“Is being one of four omegas in an alpha’s harem really what you want?” Carlyn asked.

“Being your omega, harem-brother to some of the best people I’ve ever known, is really what I want.”

Johann leaned in and kissed Carlyn softly. The kiss melted Carlyn and made him feel like he was floating. When it ended, he was quietly breathless.

“Stay,” Carlyn said. “Please stay.”

“I’d love to,” Johann replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, y'all. This is finally done. If you liked it please leave a comment. And if you'd like to read more like this please consider heading over to Amazon.com at
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/Wolpertinger-Other-Stories-Leigheaux-Longuet/dp/109862579X 
> 
> and buying Wolpertinger and Other Stories, which has this story and two other new stories. Wolpertinger and Other Stories is available in paperback and Kindle verisions.


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